Reign In Blood: A Song of Severed Spirits
by Melkor44
Summary: They had used him, abandoned him, betrayed him...he was their ultimate, the cusp of their ability and power, tossed aside like a rag. Sealed away, he now waits for the day his release will come; on that day, the world will remember why they were right to fear him and to eliminate him. A masked man lurks in the shadows, and the Dark Lord Kitsune will rise again!
1. Enter Kitsune!

**So, this is my newest project: Reign In Blood. If you followed any of my other stories, you know the pairing by now: Naruto/Yugito, no exceptions.**

**There will be others, surprises for now, but that's the main one.**

**Anyway, I hope you enjoy this. It features a Naruto who wields six elements: Katon, Suiton, Futon, Enton, Hyoton, and Futton. This may seem vastly overpowered, given the way most Naruto fics are, but I can promise that it's not. The story will become non-canon very quickly, around the Chunin Exams. Also, as I've looked at my past stories in both mobile and regular view, I'd like to apologize for the fact that I've written mostly for mobile viewers…**

**So, without further ado, I will now introduce what I hope to become my epic of Naruto fanfiction.**

RIB RIB RIB

Many people in Konoha thought that the term ANBU was an acronym, something that referred to assassination and infiltration, something like that. This belief, however, was entirely false. Anbu was no acronym… Anbu was the very definition of freedom for its members.

Anbu was, translated from the Eldar Tongue that was more ancient than recorded history, literally 'the Dark Side' of Konoha. Anbu, however, was only a drop in the pond. Beyond that, in secrecy and skill, was the Kurojutsu (Black Ops) division. Among those who actually knew what the thing was, it was considered the most "hardcore" fighting force inside of Konohagakure no Sato.

More than that, it was viewed as the most powerful military corps of Hi no Kuni…

Anbu was liberation from all shelter, and the ultimate truth of the world. Anbu was the very definition of death. The entirety of Anbu was handpicked by the Hokage, regardless of age, gender, or familial status; so long as they were physically fit and willing to do so, they could be enlisted into the Dark Side.

The Kurojutsu division, however, was an entirely different barrel of monkeys—not even the Hokage was given permission to select the people who managed to gain entry into THAT… To get in, you had to be selected by someone who was already enlisted. Should you decline that offer, you would never again be asked to enter.

RIB RIB RIB

The small boy, only a few years old, had tattoos on both of his arms; the right arm's ink was of the standard Konoha Anbu marking, twin flames that opposed one another in direction… The second one, on his left arm, was quite different.

It was more of a scar, or an inked engraving, than it was a tattoo; the stylized leaf sigil of Konoha had been branded into his arm with a hot iron, then cut into the burn with a carving knife, and the cut's groove had then been inked in a black chakra-storing solution. Six rays surrounded the leaf, extending outward from it like beams of sunlight.

His blonde hair was hidden by the black cowl that similarly covered his neck and throat, his body armed and armored in a way that was almost exactly the same as the traditional Anbu way, save for two differences: the first was that his long sleeves had been shredded at their shoulders, baring his allegiance to the world. The second difference was the placement of his sword; rather than having it on his leg, it was aligned with the bottom of his left shoulder blade.

Red eyes flickered in the firelight as he made camp with his team…

The Anbu were considered the best, but Kurojutsu was above even that level. And this team, Anbu Kurojutsu no Han Roku, (Team Six of the Dark Side's Black Arts) was considered the absolute pinnacle of Konohagakure no Sato's military might. Itachi, Inu, Kame, and Kitsune (Weasel, Dog, Turtle, Fox) were the greatest warriors of Konoha; in this effect, they were also some of the most elite soldiers in the entire Shinobi no Kuni. (Lands of the Ninja)

Anbu had a unique hand-talk communication mode, and Kurojutsu had a separate one; Han Roku, however, had its own. A method of talking that was specifically for the four of them to use… None of them would ever admit it to the others, but all of them knew who the others were.

Uchiha Itachi, scion of his clan and heir to their seat on the council, was the man who wore the Itcachi mask.

Hatake Kakashi, student of the Yondaime Hokage and the often-rumored successor to said position, held the Inu mask.

Haruno Sozetsu, husband of Civilian Councilwoman Haruno Saya, the man who had chakra control that went beyond perfection, was in the Kame mask.

And the boy behind the Kitsune mask… He had chosen to forsake that life. Uzumaki Naruto did not exist any longer; he was, now and forever, Kitsune. There could be no more normalcy in his life…

Target is losing distance. We should reach him in two hours.

And, indeed, they caught up with their enemy. His eyes were wide with fear and fatigue—a Konoha Jonin who had betrayed the village…

He had guards, all of similar skill level, who the rest of Han Roku dealt with while Kitsune took on the traitor.

"Raiton: Gian!" The attack was panicked, and poorly executed, and Kitsune blocked it with his sword. (Lightning Style: False Darkness)

"Hyoton: Ken." The slash was a blast of frost that cut through the lightning and moved in on the Jonin. (Ice Style: Blade)

"Doton: Kirigakure!" (Earth Style: Hidden Mist)

Kitsune inwardly noted that the name made no sense… The ensuing whirl of rubble was terribly unhelpful, however, so he decided to do something about it. "Enton: Jigoku Arashi." (Inferno Style: Hell Storm)

The flaming haze of black and green managed to melt the flying earth into naught but slag, revealing the target to be behind Kitsune.

A single, lightning-fast, stab of his blade took care of the problem in little time at all; the man was speared through the face, but not hard enough to die instantly. The man choked and sputtered, falling down as the blade slipped from his head—it simply didn't have enough force to continue holding him up—and died upon impact with the ground. As he fell, however, he uttered two words that Kitsune had heard for several years.

"Damn… Brat…"

The surviving guards were not given the chance to flee, nor the opportunity to choose arrest; they were killed in a fashion so quick that it was brutal, all three crushed to death by their own gravity increasing and flattening them to dust.

Kame was the least obviously-threatening of the group, but that was what made him the most dangerous one… In no time at all, there wasn't a single trace that the battle had ever taken place

Move out. Kitsune signed to them, leaping away.

The return journey to Konoha lasted a measly two days, as opposed to the four it took to reach their target.

RIB RIB RIB

"Congratulations, Han Roku… Not only did you complete your mission, but you've once again saved our village from imminent doom."

They didn't know why, and they didn't need to know. There was no gain in knowing… They were only called upon every few months, when village secrets and security were both in absolute maximum danger. Anything else was done by the regular Anbu, Danzo's supposedly disbanded Ne Anbu, or some other Kurojutsu team.

Because they were Han Roku, and because they were the greatest, they would give everything to Konoha, for Konoha, by Konoha; this was not limited to their lives, either, as they always ended up sacrificing small pieces of their personalities after each mission.

"Dismissed, save for Kitsune…"

The smallest Anbu stayed rooted to his spot as the other members of his squad vanished into the night.

"You may remove your mask, Kurojutsu Kitsune Anbu."

He moved his hand up, showing the right arm's tattoo, and slowly removed the black porcelain object that had become a part of his life much larger than his own self.

"Naruto-kun…"

Despite the negative emotions the name brought, Kitsune didn't show anything with his posture or expression. "I am not Naruto. I gave up many ties to the world upon joining Anbu, and the rest were severed when I joined the Kurojutsu division. I no longer answer to any name except for my own: Han Roku no Kitsune, Konoha no Kurojutsu Anbu." (Fox of Team Six, Black Ops Dark Side of the Leaf)

"Very well, Kitsune. I realize that, for a man of as few words as you are, that must seem like a terribly long speech—I'll cut to the chase: I'm officially retiring you."

"With every ounce of respect that is due to you for all your years of work protecting and nurturing this village, Sandaime Hokage-sama…" The boy slipped his mask back on, the black facial covering providing a shield and a form of comfort; in particular, the voice modulator—he didn't like the sound of his natural voice, it was too whiny and high-pitched. "I shall die long before I will ever leave Han Roku, or Kurojutsu, or even Anbu in general; you will never be able to stop me from serving the village I hold so dear…"

"I was afraid you might say something along those lines…" The aged Sarutobi somberly intoned. "I've long wondered if I was in the wrong when putting you into the darkness. Now, it seems, it has consumed you and warped your mind…"

Even the boy's nigh-inhuman senses were able to detect and stop the knockout blow from behind.

"I'm sorry, Naruto, but this is for the best. Perhaps you'll grow on a normal path to power someday, and achieve the same feats as you have, but not for a while yet. No child, no son of veritable royalty, not even a Jinchuriki like yourself, should ever be forced to live on the Dark Side… Itachi is living proof of that."

Slowly, meticulously, he drew the sealing rings with his former student. Two would be separate, from one another and the others, and they would contain either his memories or 'hinder' the Kyubi's chakra.

The first seal was only temporary, as it prevented him from waking up until he was done.

The second seal, the one that would be released last—if at all—held his Enton techniques.

The third of them took away his Futton abilities.

Fourth was for Katon.

Fifth stripped him of the Hyoton.

The last of his elements to be taken was Suiton.

The seventh seal was a double-helix sealing matrices series that would inhibit the influence of the Kyubi's chakra and abilities; had they bothered to think about this, it was actually an incredibly stupid idea—why would you strip a sword of its blade?

The eighth and final of the seals would rob him of his memories and replace his persona with the mind of a clownish buffoon.

They truly believed that what they had done was unerringly for the best, something that would help the world maintain balance and order, not realizing that they had unwittingly set the stage for their own demise…

Kitsune might have been gone, but he was not forgotten.

Three years after this incident, Itachi of Han Roku defected from Konoha and slew his entire clan, sans his brother…

A year after that, Inu of Han Roku lost his wife and only child to an enemy even he could not defeat: disease. He soon resigned his post.

Not even two months after this, Kame was the only survivor of a battle that claimed the lives of the newest Han Roku recruits; he was permanently paralyzed from the waist down.

All the while, sealed away, the inner warrior of Uzumaki Naruto was dormant and waiting for his release. And, when that day came, the Kitsune would have the last laugh upon the world…

_**Believe it**__**!**_


	2. The Seal Slips? Enter Zabuza!

**Hey guys! Good news, I can give you all a new chapter really quickly!**

**Bad news: I doubt that this is going to happen very often.**

**More good news: I'm going to try to give you guys at least a chapter a month, if not faster.**

**Anyway, I'm really excited about this. I've already written ahead for a few chapters, and I'm going to try to increase that lead between now and the next update; I'm really glad you guys have enjoyed this so far, though I thought you guys would have more questions than you did.**

**In other news, I'm going to try to make this my "epic" of fanfiction. I've already gotten twelve chapters down, and I'm thinking that this may go on for as many as a hundred depending on how far I can stretch my words.**

**So here's the next chapter, number two!**

ASOSS

The relatively newly-formed Team Seven returned quickly upon the completion of their supposedly easy mission; the fact of the matter was that Tora, the pet cat of Lady Shijimi, who was the wife of the Hi no Daimyo, could outrun even the Anbu of Konohagakure. It was apparently not alone in this ability, either; every Daimyo's pet, even the Mizu no Daimyo's turtle and slug, somehow possessed the near-mythic ability to hide and run like champion ninja…

A common theory was that they were all spawned by ancient demons, and it was a hereditary trait.

The first among the team was Uchiha Sasuke, brother to Shinrui-Toko no Itachi, a boy whose onyx eyes held a pain too deep to be expressed in words or in feelings, or even in thought. (Itachi the Kinslayer)

Next of the four was Haruno Sakura, daughter of the legendary Sozetsu, a girl with fluorescent pink hair that made her emerald eyes stand out even more than they already did.

Uzumaki Naruto was carrying the legendary beast back to its owner, trying to remember something that seemed both incredibly important and ludicrously unnecessary… It was something in the cat's fur, a red bow, that triggered this. A red bow, worn in someone's hair… But whose hair, and what bow? How could any of this make sense at all…?

He decided to ignore it for a moment as he watched the cat struggle against his muscular arms. He pinched the cat's neck, paralyzing it for a few moments, as he handed it over to the noble who owned it. While she cooed over it, expressing her sincerest joy that her beloved orange furball (OF DOOM) had been returned, Naruto remembered a little bit more; it hadn't been a ribbon, it had been some kind of paint. Much like the Inuzuka clan's birthmarks, actually, on their pale skin…or against a black backround, like the lady's hair…

But it hadn't quite reached him yet, as his brain was certainly not one of the sharpest knives in the drawer, so he looked to the Hokage.

"Hey, Jiji, can we have a better mission now? I'm tired of all these stupid D-rank chores, they're such bullshit that it's not even funny! Please, can we?"

"Naruto!" A Chunin roared in outrage; this was Umino Iruka, who had been the boy's teacher throught the eleven years of Academy work. Even if the boy was, legally and physically and mentally, an adult, he still shouldn't do such a thing! "These missions are supposed to be easy ones that build up your skill level until you're actually ready for a C-rank mission! After twenty D-ranks, you still have thirty more before you'll even be considered for a more difficult mission!"

"The only skill level that's being built up here, Iruka…" The lack of any suffix, respectful or not, was made painfully obvious by the small gap of silence. "Is how pissed off I am. I'm going to get us one of those C-rank missions, whether or not you like it, and whether or not you are ever going to agree with it."

"You. Are. Not. Ready."

Suddenly, the room grew incredibly tense. That was when Naruto sensed them, the hidden Anbu, who were ready to make a—

THAT WAS IT!

With a not-quite-audible blast that everyone felt, though only in their minds, it became increasingly clear that something was terribly wrong, that some law of the universe had just been shattered into a billion irreparable pieces.

Naruto's hands then moved in an incredibly quick way that wasn't quite hand signs used for making a jutsu…

It had been twelve years since Hatake Kakashi, the Jonin and leader of Team Seven, had seen or used that method of communication. It was not the style of Anbu, nor even that of the disbanded Kurojutsu division, but a different one all together: Han Roku hand-talk.

Naruto instinctively reached for a blade that he knew would be there, aligned with his left shoulder blade and with the hilt sticking out on the right, but knew something was wrong when he gripped nothing but air. Where had they taken his blade, his armor? Where had they taken his mask? Damn them all!

Kakashi's eyes instantly showed alarm beyond what could have been possible; Naruto had taken Iruka's words as a threat, as his signing had said, and he was prepared to butcher the Chunin until nothing recognizable remained. But…but… The Hokage had assured him, told them all, had brought his former student Jiraiya to prove to them, that the boy's powers had been sealed away for good! How could this…? Did the seals slip?

"Naruto, stop!" Kakashi roared, looking to the Hokage for anything—absolutely anything at all—that would be able to stop his young and volatile charge from erupting into a beast that could slaughter mercilessly.

"Very well, Naruto-kun…" The Hokage drawled, slightly shocked himself at the show of fierce determination. "Send in Tazuna."

ASOSS

The first thing Naruto had done was buy a sword that was made for his form; he placed it where a standard Anbu blade would go, along the outside of the right leg, but it just didn't feel right to him. Remembering where he'd reached for earlier, in the room where he'd forced a mission to be given, he aligned it with the bottom edge of his left shoulder blade… It felt much better, much more comfortable.

Then, having packed his things and then bringing extra materials in the event that they became necessary, he decided to head out and wait.

ASOSS

A puddle. Really, a puddle? In the middle of the summer, in the longest draught Hi no Kuni had seen in more than seventy-five years? Though he would have sensed them anyway, Kakashi was disappointed by the two ninja who were hidden within the minor illusion.

The blond Jinchuriki's hands moved on instinct, the message flashing back to Kakashi.

_Two enemies. Terminate?_

It was not a question of 'if,' but rather one of 'when.'

Kakashi still didn't answer, nor did he want to; he was still trying to ascertain just how much of his old self had come back, and wasn't certain if he'd been entirely unsealed or not.

It wasn't to be, however, as only a small section of Naruto's power and personality had been unlocked: the Kenjutsu master, albeit with a different blade, as well as the take-no-shit attitude that defined the very Anbu corps in itself. The intense and undying loyalty to Konoha had never faded whatsoever… Realizing this, at length, Kakashi sighed. "Not now, Naruto."

Suddenly, the two 'hidden' enemies leapt forth from the puddle they had been hiding in, though that had been an obvious giveaway… Their chain of shuriken, dripping with a poison that likely had no antidote, was wrapped around Kakashi.

"What!?"

He was summarily shredded into itsy-bitsy, teeny-tiny pieces of flesh and bone.

Naruto had drawn his blade now, and waited for the enemy to come to him; seeing that they would do no such thing, he charged forward with the intent to butcher. "Guard Tazuna!" He roared, though he knew it was likely an unnecessary measure. With a single slash, one was incapacitated—Naruto's sword had cut upward, splitting the man in two just below his ribcage, but he was still going to be alive in a few minutes.

"The other one is yours to take, Sasuke… Kill him, he is unnecessary."

Sasuke felt compelled to obey Naruto, which was strange and frightening to him—he was an Uchiha, he was supposed to take charge! Sasuke defended himself against the man, but never got an actual hit.

He was taking too long... The second of the men ran, attempting to flee.

"Damn you all!" Naruto roared, vanishing in a burst of speed, performing a quick and thorough beheading of the man who had attacked himself and his team without provocation. After seeing this, Kakashi reappeared—he'd switched himself out with a log, via Kawarimi, before the chains had even touched him.

He wasn't a Jonin for nothing, after all.

"Excellent job, Naruto. Sasuke, Sakura, you also did extremely well; against foes of their caliber, I'm amazed that you held up as well as you did. And Naruto… Try to tone it down a bit, eh? That attack was cruel, you could have just knocked him out."

"Life is cruel, Hatake." Naruto spat. "Why should death be any different?"

Death… The life of a ninja was, ironically, their end.

"Nevertheless… Move out, team."

"What, and just leave him here?" Naruto argued. "We should get some information out of him!" He demanded, briskly walking up to the dying man.

"Tell me who you're working for, and who your target was."

The man spat, blood mixing with saliva that just barely missed Naruto. "Never, you brat!"

Naruto reached down and ripped out the man's stomach before threatening to upend it; the gastric acid would melt his face off.

"Okay, okay, fine! I'll talk, damn it! His name is Gato, he said he'd pay us two million dollars each if we killed the builder!"

While the rest of his team shot dirty looks at Tazuna, Naruto continued on with his rather unorthodox interrogation.

"Who else is working with you? It's not possible that you're acting alone!"

"The O—" He was quickly silenced by a senbon needle that went through his eye and brain, instantly ending his life.

"He was working with a man named Momochi Zabuza, the Kirigakure no Oni. Many thanks, Konoha-san, I'd been tracking this pair for quite some time."

"That… That was my kill."

"If you say so, Genin-san. I'll be going now…"

The Oinin (Hunter) left, having cut off the head, taken the other, sealed them away, and set fire to the bodies…

"Damn her! That was my kill!" He shouted.

ASOSS

They traveled for two more days, most of which was on a rickety boat made of wood and reeds, until they had finally made it into the poorhouse that was Nami no Kuni.

"Be ready for anything…" Kakashi cautioned, his senses on full alert, preparing.

Naruto, seeing a sudden movement, launched a hidden kunai faster than his two former classmates could ever have tracked it with their eyes. There was a sound of the knife hitting flesh, and that was when they saw…

A snowshoe hare, with a coat so close to white that it was almost blinding.

"GET DOWN!" He shouted, tackling everyone else to the ground—milliseconds later, a gigantic zanbato swept right through where their heads had just been.

"Heh… A bunch of tree-hugging hippies and an old man who's far past his time…"

"Momochi Zabuza, bastard son of the Jakiri…" (Bloody Mist) Kakashi scowled. "Member of the Kirigakure no Shinobigatana Nananin Shu, wielder of the Kubikiri Hocho, attempted assassin of the Yondaime Mizukage, and one of the most hunted-after men in the world."

"I'm flattered, Hatake. Truly. But your brats, they don't seem all that impressive to me."

Kakashi looked to his orange-clad student, smirking beneath his partial mask… "Show him your left arm, Naruto."

The boy was somewhat confused, though he didn't show it, and slipped the arm out of his jumpsuit. Unzipping the front, the arm snaked out to reveal a burned, carved, scarred, and inked tattoo; Zabuza's face noticeably paled, going from a healthy peach to Anbu-mask white in all of one second flat.

"You… You can't be serious. You must be joking."

"Oh… How did I know that you were going to say that?"

"You son of a bitch… That's beyond even MY level of cruelty! He couldn't have been older than—" It clicked, and Zabuza froze as the pieces fell into their places. "You monsters, you locked it all away!" He declared, moving to attack Naruto. "He has no memory of it, does he?"

The renegade's eyes gleamed with a dark light… "And, now, I'll never again be questioned as the greatest of the seven!" He swung his massive blade down.

"The attack you chose… Quite correct, given my situation. With my blade, it's exceedingly difficult to block such a strike. Unfortunately for you, however…" Naruto did have a terrible habit of talking with the people he was about to kill. "My blade is also in the proper position."

He leapt up, letting his sword escape from the crushing pressure of Zabuza's weight and force, and descended with a harsh war cry.

"HAIL AND KILL!" He bellowed, his blade rushing down in an attempt to end Zabuza's life… But, seeing that he was nowhere close to the renegade's position upon nearing the ground, he performed a monumental feat of Ninjutsu: compressing as much of his chakra as possible, he used it as a giant spring that shot him in such a way that his sword was perpendicular with his enemy's guts.

Zabuza couldn't react in time, and was summarily torn in half by the blade...

But, instead of blood, only water came out.

"DAMN IT ALL TO YAMIMAKAI!" Naruto shouted.

A dark laugh resounded from both everywhere and nowhere at once… "Well, it looks like he wasn't entirely sealed. Or, perhaps, he broke a little bit of it. Either way, this is a temporary farewell. And tell Gato, when you see him, that the Kirigakure no Oni will end him!"

They felt the man leave, and the mysterious Oinin from two days earlier presented herself. "Where did he go? I felt his chakra, he can't be far…"

"Hell if we know, miss."

"Naruto, that's a boy!"

"Sakura… I really think it would help you, sometimes, if you stopped talking about yourself like that. At the very least, do so less often… Please?" Naruto rolled his eyes.

"The blond is right, I'm actually a girl. This doesn't really matter, however, as I fear I must move on… Goodbye, Konoha-san."

The kunoichi vanished.

"She's a strong one… I hate to see her go."

"But we both know you love to watch her leave…"

Naruto didn't bother refuting the statement. Sasuke and Sakura were still trying to comprehend Naruto's sudden skill increase; he'd just taken on an S-class ninja, with only a sword and some chakra, and managed to make the man retreat.

It was starting to scare them, and this incident was just more proof that he really was the most unpredictable ninja in all of Konoha.

Naruto sheathed his blade, preparing to move on, and his eyes softened now that the battle had ended. "Tazuna-san… Which way is your home? I'd like to get there as fast as possible."

After having the way pointed out to him—which he'd been facing—he moved on… After all, he needed to get to the house so that he could rest before taking down Gato.

And take down the man he would, with his own two bare hands if necessary…

_**BELIEVE IT!**_


	3. A Wave By Any Other Name

**Sorry, folks. I had a few one-shots take over my priorities for whatever reason (they flowed out when this story didn't; I'd be much obliged if you'd check them out and drop a review on them...) and then my laptop was taken. I am not, however fortunate or unfortunate it is for me, dead.  
**

**This chapter was originally about three times as long as this version, but you'll get the rest next time.**

**So, without further disruption by this AN, I present you with the third installment!  
**

* * *

They had arrived at Tazuna's familial home without further incident, which was good for all sides; Kakashi didn't want Naruto to unlock any more of his sealed powers, Sasuke and Sakura were afraid of the intense skills he'd displayed in his bout, and Tazuna still hadn't gotten over the fact that such a shrimp had saved his life twice. It was currently time for dinner, and the assembled persons of the house were gathered around the table to eat.

"Arigato, Tsunami-san. The food is delicious."

Tazuna's daughter smiled at the praise, her eyes closing to convey an image of demure cuteness.

_'In the time it took her to close her eyes and open them, a competent ninja could have slaughtered everyone in this building. She is too trusting, and too reliant.'_

Naruto didn't know where the thoughts were coming from, but he also didn't particularly care about that. What mattered was getting the most energy he could out of the stew he'd been presented with, which was slim to none... He'd never been very big on nutrition anyway, though, and could subsist on nothing but the Kyubi's malevolent chakra for two days out of a week; it didn't feel good, obviously, but it had allowed him to survive when shopkeepers overcharged him for stale or rotten food.

As he prepared to leave, the young boy across from him...what was his name, Inami? Imari? In any case,the boy spoke up.

"Why do you even bother trying to do anything? Gato's invincible, and you're all just going to die."

"Well, kid, nobody's invincible! I'm sure that if we try hard enough..."

Naruto cleared his throat, interrupting what would have been a fantastic story about teamwork, friendship, and the power of hope. "That's absolute bullshit." He declared. "There's people who are invincible, Sakura, and you just haven't met them. Gato isn't one of them, but they exist... Just look at history: Hanzo of the Salamander single-handedly defeated all three of Konoha's legendary Sannin, and gave them that title. The Yondaime Hokage ended the Third Shinobi War with a single battle. Uchiha Madara could summon and control the Kyubi no Kitsune... There are people who truly are invincible, and who don't need to hide behind walls of money to prove it to others. In the end, that's all Gato is: a coward who solves problems by throwing money at them. If I can't personally end the man's life in a week's time, I can promise you now that he will die before the next seven days are gone."

The cold eyes in Naruto's head didn't flinch, but his gaze betrayed all the welled-up fury he kept inside of himself. The boy's words had struck a note in him, a sickening melody of discord, and he hated it. He hated the boy's ignorance, he hated this mission, he hated that he couldn't remember his past...

"Run along and play with your toys, child, so I can do my job."

"Shut up!" The boy screamed. "You're just a bunch of ninja who get to be safe because you live inside a big city with walls and powerful fighters! How would you know anything about what it's like to suffer like we have?"

Sakura dipped her head in shame at that statement, and Kakashi simply stared off into the distance. Sasuke was livid with anger at who he'd deemed to be an insignificant brat, on the verge of assaulting him. Naruto was the most dangerous in his reaction, however, because he remained entirely calm and collected. Very slowly, he pushed his chair from the table; standing up, he removed his jacket and shirt.

"This," he showed off his right shoulder, "is the standard tattoo of the Dark Side, the Anbu. Many people consider it the ultimate symbol of strength in our village, and I am one of the few who disagrees. Now _this_," he maneuvered his left shoulder forward, its marking eerie in the low light, "this one is given to those who ascend all ranks of the Anbu and reach a higher, stronger, deadlier level of skill. Before being disbanded, Kurojutsu Anbu-that would be the Black Ops division-were given this mark to show just how much they were willing to sacrifice in the name of Konohagakure no Sato. I remember nothing of those times, and am only beginning to rediscover my abilities after so long within their absence; it was done so that I could be a normal child, which was a vain and foolish dream."

Sky-blue eyes deepened and warped, turning themselves into sanguine orbs of death's manifest.

"My scars, for the most part, were given to me by my own people; I was sworn to protect them, unable to lash out at them even in the most dire circumstances, because it would have meant my death. Before the age of thirteen, I didn't live under a single thing but the open sky. There was no guarantee of food, and most of that was stolen out of garbage because there was no other way to obtain it. Both of my parents are dead, I was never adopted, and there are no such things in my life as 'friends' or 'compassion.' You have constantly whined and bemoaned your status, even in just the few short hours that I've known you, but your life is less than half as hard as mine could have been."

They were the most words he'd spoken in months, and he was clearly worn out from so much speaking in so little time. "If anybody needs me, I'll be training in the woods..."

He left by way of the front door, and did not return.

"Despite what Naruto said," Kakashi drawled, "his sealing was the right thing to do. It may have been the worse choice in terms of military power, and its drawbacks can still be felt all these years later, but it was necessary. What we did in the name of Konoha, what _he _did, is something no child should experience... We sealed him away because he was too zealous for bloodshed, too hungry to kill in an attempt to protect. By all rights, he was going insane-he'd developed too much power, far too quickly, and it warped his mind to darkness."

"And what about the beatings?" Sakura questioned. "If he was an Anbu at four, he would've been about to fight them off easily."

"That's not how it works. For a normal ninja, the penalty for attacking a civilian is exile or a sealing of chakra. The Anbu penalty is a formal beheading. The Kurojutsu way is even simpler: you're killed on the spot, and your existence is wiped from all records relating to you. Even after his sealing, that lesson had been drilled into Naruto's very bones; no man-made seal could erase his blind loyalty and utter devotion to the village of Konoha..."

"The seal slipped inside of the mission room, when he was arguing with Iruka." Sasuke asserted. "It didn't break, but bits and pieces of his former self came back?"

Kakashi's nod was all that Sasuke needed for confirmation.

"Zabuza panicked when he first saw the Kurojutsu mark... He recovered quickly, but there was real terror on his face when he realized what it was. What exactly did Naruto do that warrants a reaction that strong? Particularly from a man whose moniker means, 'Demon of the Mist?'"

"Too much to count... He slaughtered armies, assassinated people who should have been untouchable, and ended a covert war practically by himself. He could control seven elements, and his favorite nickname was 'Yami-sama,' the Dark Lord. Personally, however, I preferred his title as the Senso no Kami-the God of War. He was truly a soldier to be feared, and Zabuza's reaction is one of the most controlled ones I've ever seen. Most others would have simply committed suicide rather than face him."

While Sakura paled to a shade that rivaled ghosts, Sasuke nodded in his understanding; it was better to die with honor, a free man, than to be butchered like a fool who didn't know when to quit. "In any case..." Kakashi continued, "...training will resume tomorrow, since Naruto was right-we have a week, likely, until Zabuza returns, though I think he may be frightened off by several factors."

_'Like me being in perfect health, or Naruto possibly regaining more of his past self...or the woman who's listening in on our conversation from upstairs.'_

"And, while we're on the subject of frightening things, Naruto can never know we had this conversation."

* * *

_'That bastard!' _She seethed. He dared to talk about the boy behind his own back? Is that what the famed Hatake Kakashi was doing, ignoring his own personal mantra?

_'I'll kill him!' _Well, not really, but she certainly wanted to. It was disgusting, what they were doing. They wanted to keep him their pet, their tool, shackled to the ball-and-chain of memory loss. She couldn't stand it, she had to go to him now... She couldn't risk staying in this place and wiping out its residents.

_'I'm coming...just...wait for me, saiai, beloved.'_

* * *

She found him, certainly, but he was asleep; she'd never seen him so at peace, and he looked far less fearsome without his mask...dare she say that, even as an adult, he looked cute? Smiling, she leaned down to kiss his forehead.

"Just wait for me, my little _kitsune_..." She laughed quietly, leaping towards Gato's base; she had been hired by him, though that was just a ruse-her allegiance belonged to one man, and only to that one man. "I'll be coming for you in a little while."

Later, when Naruto woke, he would remember the words as if he'd dreamed them... but that was for a different time, a different place, and alternate circumstances.

* * *

The hand in front of his face was frozen stiff by the malicious aura he emanated. The hidden group of senbon fell from the assassin's hand...and then Naruto opened his eyes. Brilliant, lustrous, red-hued, filled with darkness no being could hope to match.

The pre-noon sun shone down through broad leaves as Naruto woke from his quiet slumber; he took hold of the assailant's hand, violently growling as his unsheathed sword-he'd forgotten to put it back after he'd finished his 'training' the previous night-was blocked by a wall of mirror-clear ice. "To think that you would attempt to kill me while I was sleeping... Thank god, I thought that none of your generation had spines!"

He broke the wall with the pommel of his blade, and his sword's honed edge lacerated its target.

It was at this point that Naruto heard something pop inside him, and a deafening roar filled the area; he felt two colors of blue-and knew how strange that sounded-envelop his chakra. Further memories of the distant past rushed to the front of his mind, blurred images and whispered words becoming sharply focused. "The ebb and flow of my energy, the biting frost of demise..." He said, drawing a cold power from his violent inner self.

After a few short minutes, very little was left of the androgynous being that had once been named Haku.

"Water and ice... Suiton and Hyoton. A third of my sealed powers have become unlocked thanks to that child, and his death was more than a fitting reward."

Now it was time for him to make his move... But, he supposed, he would pay a visit to his 'team' first. That was what a teammate did, after all, wasn't it...

_**Believe it!**_


	4. A Wave By Any Other Name, Part Two

**I'm back, with "chapter four" that's really just the second part of chapter three... And, with that having been said, I'd like to respond to some reviews that weren't just "update faster" or "great job."**

**Guest: "I want to ask you something, is Naruto going to move his ass? I mean, if it's to make him into a loyal Konoha shinobi..."**

**I legitimately have absolutely no idea what you're trying to ask... On any level. I sincerely don't understand.**

**Is there anyone, anyone at all, who understands this question?**

**willowskeith: as good as that plot sounds, that's not where this fic is headed. I've already got the whole thing planned out, and have written up to chapter fifteen. (Which is now chapter seventeen, since I split chapter three into three different parts...) Also, that's something that I've personally seen overused beyond all hope of recovery.**

**I will say it again (or have I said it before? I don't know): I fully intend for this to be my mark on the Naruto fanfiction community much in the same way as LD1449's "Lost Soul" was... Entirely original. A plot that hasn't been seen before, that cannot be duplicated, and the first book of a trilogy. (though the second has only a bare minimum of relation to the Naruto universe, and the third doesn't connect at all...)**

**I'm actually writing this as a real book, though obviously changing names and places and circumstances and such; I'm calling it, "The Dark Lord Trilogy," and this is book one.**

**Okay, that was all. If you have any questions or criticisms that weren't addressed, feel free to message me. Finally, we'll move on to the fourth installment of _A Song of Severed Spirits._**

* * *

"Naruto... I'm going to assume you can do this. Am I right?"

The two Genin of Team Seven were performing an exercise he'd mastered on his first day of chakra-based training in the Anbu; it was called tree-walking, and it was performed by placing chakra on the soles of the feet before moving up a surface. He'd certainly mastered it, and at a much greater difficulty-he'd been trained on walls of glass, rather than trees, and had the scars around his ankles to prove it.

"Obviously."

**[Pathetic. This is what constitutes as training?]**For the first time in years, the Kyūbi no Kitsune no Yoko spoke with his host. He was woken by a blast of a seal, and was saddened to find that it was unfortunately not the one that held him within; he did, however, notice that something was different-two of the eight seals had been removed completely, one was a third of the way undone, and another was almost entirely destroyed.

_Apparently. It's incredibly disappointing, but they won't survive if they don't know it. _For the first time in even more years, the container spoke back.

"Alright, then... Go scout out the town, particularly Gato's mansion and bases. Report back in three days, and don't get into any more conflicts than are necessary."

The boy didn't even bother to acknowledge the orders given to him, instead holding up his right hand before seeming to melt into the ground. It was just a fancy-looking Shunshin, one that was actually much faster than it seemed, and it sent Naruto into the very heart of Nami. It was his form of a dismissal, of sorts, particularly so when it hit Kakashi that the child was likely to disobey every parameter he'd set.

* * *

**[It hasn't been very long, but I'm already beyond glad to have you back.]**

_I'm not back, not really. I still have a long way to go._

**[Regardless, anything is better than having that insufferable brat stuck in your place.]**

_Hey, I'm not a-_ He paused mid-sentence. _...the seal-made personality tried to take control, and succeeded for a second. I'll need to be more vigilant._

First of all, he needed to change his wardrobe. This orange was making him sick, and he desperately needed something different; anything would do, even something that was hot pink, but if he had to stay in this monstrously-colored jumpsuit for another minute then he'd start killing people.

The store he chose wasn't very well-stocked, but it had what he needed: ink-black shirt and pants. After buying three of each and sealing them away, he noticed something above the doorframe: a black mask, in the shape of a fox. He didn't need to see the back to know that there was a voice modulator, or that it would meld perfectly with his face; he became acutely aware of how...natural...his voice sounded.

"Is that mask yours, sir?"

"Yes, it is; I bought it at a festival several years ago, since it was in such perfect condition... Why do you ask?"

"Well, to make a long story short," he idly noticed that the elderly shopkeeper was quite small, and mentally cursed himself for what could have been a potentially damning phrase in different company, "it used to be mine, and was stolen from me. I will be taking it back... And keep the change."

Naruto placed several thousand ryo in the man's hand, enough to make the poor merchant's eyes widen in shock, and knew that he would exit the place unnoticed. Placing his mask on his face, viewing the world through the gaze of his former self, he knew that all would be right with the world; his memories continued to flow to him, and his gaze was ever-more twisted to death; brilliant sapphire iris crossed the color wheel, transforming to the bloody red that had been Kitsune's trademark gaze... He was no more, and never again would be, Uzumaki Naruto. He was once again the soldier that he'd been born to become, even if it was only partially, and Kitsune could only laugh as he roamed the rooftops of the town.

At long last, after an eternity of waiting inside of that thrice-damned seal, the Demon walked free.

* * *

Something very bad had just happened, and Kakashi was pretty sure that he could get the right answer in three guesses. He'd felt an overwhelming presence of malice, and it was an aura he hadn't felt in more than a decade; angry, hate-filled, able to make him tense his muscles despite the fact that there was no threat in his immediate vicinity...

Just how far had his teacher's child fallen this time?

_'I didn't feel anything except dread, unlike earlier... This morning definitely had two distinct feelings, one right after another; does that mean that he's unlocked two of his elements, and this one was just memories or other abilities? Either way, I can't bring myself to think that such a thing is good in any way.'_

Kakashi frowned beneath his mask, though he idly looked up to see that both of his students had now mastered the exercise of tree-walking.

"Very well... Get down here, both of you, so I can show you the next step in chakra control."

"But sensei, I'm tired! Can we take a break?" Sakura's voice cut through the air, and Kakashi's frown only managed to increase in its severity.

"Absolutely not. If you're content with getting left behind, continue to walk up and down the tree... Otherwise, get down and follow me to wherever it is that I take you."

He felt something... The same woman as before, most likely, though she proved entirely illusive. What could her purpose be here, he wondered, and why did she only seem to show up when Naruto was away? Could they be connected somehow? He doubted it, but...

The thought struck him like a freight train from Yuki no Kuni. Twelve years ago, just before Naruto had been sealed, they had skirmished with a Kumogakure Anbu team; Naruto's excuse for letting them live had been that they weren't worth the time it would take, but he'd seemed to lock eyes with a Nekomata-masked woman whose reserves of chakra had been second only to Naruto's in that situation...

Kakashi shook the thought from his mind, chalking its invention up to boredom. Such a thing couldn't possibly be anything other than his imagination, and the event was from so long ago that he likely wasn't even remembering it correctly.

* * *

She smirked at the retreating forms of the Konoha Jonin and his two students, deciding not to follow after them; she didn't particularly care about them, and had only been there as a consequence of their association with the one she loved.

Now,at long last, she would likely be able to go to him... He would recognize her. He had to recognize her...

But, just to make sure, she would wait just a day or two before she actually approached him. That was the safe thing to do, after all, so she would watch and observe him.

* * *

In the night of the next day, a new man emerged from the shadows; he wasn't truly new, per se, but was instead simply lost and found again. Ripped sleeves bared his allegiances to the world, as they were inked and carved into his arms; he walked with no shadow, because he was the darkness; sanguine eyes with vulpine pupils stared out, almost seeming to glow, and they would never again retract to the false blue that had been created for them; his voice was mechanical, dual-toned in separate octaves, now fearsome instead of simply irritating; last was his mask, as cold and impersonal as he was, the proof that he was no more than a simple merchant.

A seppe-sai, that is. A seller of death.

"I can feel your presence, Nekomata, so you may as well come down. Did you think I would hurt you?"

The woman dropped down, giggling, her mask left on as she faced him. "Only if it was to bring me pleasure," she said, laughing... Clearly, even though she couldn't see his face, he was unamused by her joke, "and you still need to lighten up."

"You're too childish, Nekomata," he admonished her, "and an argument could be made that you're the most childish of all nine."

She pouted behind her mask, though he couldn't see it.

"In any case," he continued, "what's the news from Kumogakure?"

"E will support you, if you actually intend to go through with your plan, but only because of me; you'll still need to do the majority of the fighting on your own power."

"It's more than I was expecting, and that's absolutely fine." His eyes flashed with a grin that contorted his face beneath the mask, and he laughed inwardly. "...and about what you mentioned, the last time we met..."

"Well... You know there's no way that I'd say 'no' to that, right?"

"I do." He laughed. "Tomorrow, then, if you'll set the arrangements as soon as you can... After all, you should know that I'm very impatient about certain things."

"I do."

She vanished into the night, off to whatever constituted as a religious place. He didn't feel that he'd be too well-received in any of them, as he was likely to set himself aflame upon entering their grounds... Now _that_ was a joke. _That_ was humor at its finest.

It was a reference to a religion that had died out thousands of years ago, with the obliteration of the world order, and one that few people would truly understand, but that just made it even greater to behold.

He melted into the ground, reappearing atop a street light, crouching in preparation to move... It was time to train, after all, and he needed to get back into the absolute best shape that he could. Even the most well-trained shinobi in the regular forces, with few exceptions, was no match for the physical fitness regimen of the Kurojutsu Anbu... To that end, he needed to get back into the shape he'd previously been in; all the skills in the world would do him no good, after all, if he didn't have the speed or reflexes necessary to save his life...

* * *

The next day came early for Kitsune, and he quickly moved out; the Dark Lord would rise again today, and prove his resurrection to all those who doubted him. He who was born from chaos, created by death, a brother of the darkness, would show the world that they had been right to fear him. It was perhaps the greatest thing about being him, after all, that he was easily the most feared ninja of his generation...

In any event, he reached Gato's great mansion in very little time; that was when he felt an attempt to intimidate him, pathetic though it was, and knew that Zabuza had found the corpse of his apprentice.

"Are you here for vengeance?"

"..." The Kirigakure no Oni was silent, pondering, but then came to his decision. "No... Well, at least, not against you. I'm here to take out Gato for the perpetuation of the cycle, past and present, and to strike back against the system that forced Haku to become what he was. After that I'll head to Kiri, to try my hand at killing Yagura again... But, this time, I'll have the Kekkai Genkai rebels on my side."

"A noble effort... You go to Gato, then, and clear a path for me; I'll take out those that escape death by your hands. Also, if you see a woman with a lilac Nekomata mask, leave her be; she is mine."

"Alright then. On the count of five..."

Four... Mist began to blanket the area. Three. The mist thickened, filling with chakra to prevent any cabable sensor-type shinobi from discerning their location. Two seconds left in the countdown, and Zabuza began charging at the ornate stone doors... One second before impact, and he kicked the double-doors into rubble.

Zero seconds left... Hell broke loose as Kitsune waited outside, hearing the sounds of death emanate from the insides of the fortress. After his own five seconds of counting, he also began his run; hadn't he said that Gato would die within a week? Well, it was about to happen.

_**Believe it!**_


	5. A Wave By Any Other Name, Part Three

**I'm back with "chapter five," which is really just the final part of chapter three... And, with that having been said, I'd like to respond to some reviews that weren't just "update faster" or "great job."**

**Guest: Thank you for clarifying, and...I don't think it was a stupid question; rather, its validity will come into play some time soon; that's all I'm willing to say on the matter.  
**

**115saikano: I realize that it wasn't properly explained, and I apologize for that; I should have done a better job with detailing this Naruto's origins much better than I have, so I'll do it now.**

_**EVERYBODY READ THIS PSA RIGHT HERE**_

**_Reign In Blood_ Naruto/Kitsune was literally raised by Anbu in an attempt to become the greatest sword and shield that Konoha could posess; he was given to them just after the sealing of the Kyubi, and he lived his entire life (until the age of seven) as an Anbu or a Kurojutsu Anbu. He was sealed away on his seventh birthday, giving rise to 'canon' Naruto. The seal is now beginning to unravel, and the Anbu teachings have begun to resurface...he's not heartless, and is in fact far from it, but he has been trained since infancy to show no emotion towards anyone or anything. He is not 'unstoppable,' however such a statement may seem at the moment; he's just a powerhouse of a ninja, as usual, and was practically bred to be a strong warrior...you'll start seeing Kitsune's failings more towards the end of the story, when certain future plot events happen.  
**

_**PSA OVER**_

**Well, with that done... Let the show go on!  
**

* * *

He was aware of their dying screams before him, and laughed at their misery; this world had stripped him of the boy he called his son, a child of purity and whole-hearted goodness that wasn't suited for life as a killer of men. They were a part of this world which had robbed him, and he would have his vengeance with their lives. He lashed out with his sword, rending flesh and bone from one another and themselves, ending lives with simple flicks of his wrist...any who could see him as they died, struck down by the man within the mist, would have sworn that they had seen a demon.**  
**

This, of course, could only be Momochi Zabuza; his mouth frothing with frenzied rage, his eyes gleaming within the wetness of the mist, he was hatred and rage and death by steel. Life fled before him, by his own doing, and he could only laugh as his ears received the shrieking wails of those who would soon be his victims. There were a few Chunin gathered within the rabble of civilian mercenaries, but they gained nothing by this elevation of status; all humans were equal, after all, in the eyes of demons. He understood how great a shame it was that none could ever see him perform his Musei Koroshi technique, the art of Silent Killing, that he had taken and mastered and perfected beyond all other skills in his impressive repertoire...and, indeed, beyond the level of any other shinobi of Kirigakure. His mist was thicker, his sword perfect for the task, and his movements truly showed just how far he had developed his most infamous ability.

"There are eight targets," he said, inflecting the words with a growling rasp, "and each of them is just as easy to strike."

Three lives ended as he swung his great zanbatō, the Kubikiri Hōcho; were he to think of the joke, he would likely laugh that he was so 'in his element.' This was the feeling he lived for, the sense of self that he'd all but forgotten; he had to thank the brat, in a way, for Haku's death... It had brought out the part of himself that he most loved: a mindless monster who lived only to fight and kill and die like the demon he was. This was life, he told himself, but it wasn't worth living if he didn't have a fresh coat of blood adorning his pale hands.

_'Yes,'_ he had to admit to himself, _'this is why I love life.'_

* * *

Kitsune strolled into the building rather leisurely, intent on savoring the carnage that his temporary partner had dealt out to the place. The fortress reeked of death and the dying, and screams could still be heard coming from the upstairs chambers. Zabuza had likely gotten to Gato, then, and was finishing him off... The thought made Kitsune look around, seeing fresh blood get soaked into the brilliant white of the mansion's carpets and rugs, and he could think of few sights that were quite as beautiful as the one that stood before him: corpses strewn about the area with their bones broken at odd angles, lifeless eyes listlessly gazing upwards towards the ceiling and the things beyond, and even several of the not-quite-dead who were quickly disposed of by Kitsune's blade.

He heard, rather than felt, Zabuza as he went about disembarking from the upper floors; if the sound of shattering glass was any indication, then the rogue had leaped through a window... Kitsune ducked with sudden intensity, avoiding a powerful fist that went right through were his face had previously been; whipping around, he grabbed his loved one and pulled her close.

"All of the arrangements have been made?"

"Yes, saiai. You, of all people, should know that I'm very thorough."

"Well, I suppose you're right. I didn't doubt that you had succeeded, I simply felt that checking was a necessary precaution."

"In any case, we should get going! I don't want to be late for the most important day of my life!"

"Why not let him suffer?"

* * *

"Dearly beloved, we are...to prevent against...in sickness and in health..."

_Could this go on for any longer than it already_ _has?_ Kitsune wondered. _It's getting a little insulting, how slow a drawl this man uses._

**[Grin and bear it, kid; at least you have something to do while he keeps droning on about whatever half-cocked ideology spawned this torture of ceremony...]**

It was all Kitsune could manage to not scream at the world, as that would ruin the idea of a nice ceremony, and he told himself that this was supposed to be a happy day; he wasn't supposed to kill anyone here, and would likely be punished for doing so... _Just get it OVER with already!_

"You may kiss the bride."

**[Finally.]**

_Finally._

"Finally!" Nekomata purred as she was dipped low, and she did her best to make sure that her new husband would remember very little about this day...and the coming night...except for the feel of her smooth skin, the taste of her habañero lips on his, and the cries that would pierce the heavens; this, however, would have to be saved until his 'business mode' had gone offline. He was still taking out Gato, in some fashion or another, and wouldn't rest until the job was finished in its entirety.

* * *

"Something is terribly, incredibly wrong." Kakashi noted, looking up from his book to stare at the two Genin under his command. "Something that can't be undone."

"What is it, sensei? Did something happen?" Sakura asked, her large eyes curious and questioning.

"Probably. I'm willing to bet that it's actually nothing, but optimistic ninja are always the first ones to die; to tell the truth, I suspect that Naruto has cracked or broken yet another seal. It's not going to be an elemental one, fortunately, but he's still becoming more and more unstable as he progresses through them all. The further he goes, the more he'll regress, until he becomes nothing more than a beast..."

"And what do we do now?" Sasuke's tone was just as cold and even as it had ever been, as though he expected a very dark and bitter truth to come from his teacher. Black eyes drilled ever onwards, knowing that the future would depend on the elder ninja's next sentence.

"You two need to go back to Tazuna's home, and you need to quard him; if I'm wrong about what's going on, and possibly if I'm right, then they'll need you there. Tactics will be to guard the client only, and eliminate all threats as quickly as possible. If one of the others becomes a liability, kill them...this goes for the two of you as well."

"But what about you?" Sakura couldn't shut her mouth before the question was asked.

"All things considered, if worse comes to worst, I may have to try to kill Naruto."

Sasuke's head dipped in thought, and unsought tears began to fall down Sakura's face.

"Come on, let's go..." Sasuke hopped away, pulling his pink-haired teammate by the arm. _'He didn't say he would have to kill Naruto, he said he would _try_ to kill him; he doesn't think he can do it, and he could be right if he was telling us the truth about Naruto's past.'_

Kakashi stared into the distance until he could no longer feel their chakra signatures, his visible eye hardening before the Konoha hitai-ate was lifted to reveal his legendary Sharingan. If it truly needed to come to blows, he would need the famed Mirror Wheel Eye to stop his student's inner beast from coming out to play...now, fully prepared, he began to leap through the forest. Arriving in the town, he blew right through it on his way to the one place he knew Naruto would be: the mansion, off in the distance, that was cloaked in a thin veil of mist.

* * *

He returned to the mansion alone, and what he found was incredibly offensive: Gato's still-warm corpse was stuck to the door by a railroad spike. Where the aforementioned spike came from, nobody but Gato himself would likely know, but a certain Mist Demon would likely understand a thing or two about its origins if he paused in his mindless chuckling on the way back to the land of his birth... In any case, Gato was dead. A customary once-over search of the mansion didn't reveal anything that he needed, but there were several items of historical importance; who would have thought that Gato would use his immense wealth to collect antiques and fossils? Kitsune sealed them away in a series of scrolls, knowing that they could certainly be of use to _someone_ in Konoha, and he had a nagging feeling that he would eventually need them on some far-off date in the future.

There was a slight rustling of wind behind him, and ozone tinted the smell of the air. "Inu," he did not speak, as such a word was not strong enough for one like him; he _commanded_, "you have come to betray me, my friend? In the very moment of our triumph, you seek to destroy the cause's champion?"

"We were never friends." Kakashi's words were bitter, his left eyebrow furrowing in rage. "We were comrades and coworkers, allies and compatriots; nothing more. There was no friendship between us."

"Oh, believe me, I know." Kitsune laughed with his synthetic voice, a sound more disturbing than any other, and turned to look at the last Hatake. "If there's anyone who knows anything, Inu, it's me...like the way you specifically asked for the three of us to be on a team, as the Hokage planned, and never intended to fail us? You're recreating our Kurojutsu team! You, me, Itachi's brother, and Kame's daughter..." There was a short pause.

"That was unplanned. You were arranged according to your grades, and I was chosen to be the sensei because I could train Sasuke's Sharingan when it awoke."

"You should know better than to lie to me, Inu. You know that I can hear your heart beating, in this quiet a scenario, so why do you even try?"

There was no answer from the silver-haired man, and Kitsune bowed his neck at a slight angle as he sighed in irritation.

"Very well... Go, then, and sleep now in the fire."

An explosion rocked the earth beneath the mansion, all thanks to Nekomata's mastery over sealing, and the building was being eaten up by the conflagration of flames. Kitsune had vanished, off to parts unknown, and Kakashi followed suit soon after; in minutes, the entire place was ablaze...after half an hour, nothing remained but ashes and a deep crater upon the hillside. Death had paid a visit, and Gato had paid his price in full.

* * *

More than a fortnight later, as the bridge was being finished, the three members of Team Seven had still seen nothing of their final teammate. The city had been holding a festival for the past two weeks, and showed no signs of slowing or stopping its celebratory events. Money and food kept pouring in from the citizens who continued to return from the mainland of Hi no Kuni, and an electoral system of government had been created. Gato's remaining thugs had been run out of town, and all of their stolen money had mostly been recovered. A long-standing trade agreement was signed, as well as the mission's payment being handed over, and they were making ready to leave Nami no Kuni behind them as an A-ranked mission that they would be quietly lauded for.

"We're not waiting for him, are we?" Sasuke asked, though it was much more of a statement than anything else. "You intend to leave him behind if he doesn't show up."

"He knows his way back to Konoha, Sasuke." Kakashi's words were a quiet confirmation, and would be all the answer that the young man received.

Shortly after this, they crossed the bridge and began to head back towards their home; none of them could wait to return to their favorite haunts, or to simply be back in the place that they regarded as where they belonged.

"But...what do we name the bridge?"

"Leave it unnamed." Kitsune said. "Instead, just write an inscription on a plaque that can go beside it."

The suggestion was ignored, however. "I know! How about 'The Great Bridge of Kitsune?'"

"That's ridiculous..."

_**Believe it!**_


	6. Interlude

**It's time for chapter six! This means (at least...I think it does; I can't actually remember,) that I've written more chapters for this story than any of the others I've posted on here. However, that doesn't mean much... Especially since I've got about thirty chapters written out at the rate I'm going.**

**Now, once again, I'd like to respond to some reviews:**

**Duelwarrior: Would it surprise you to say that I thought of doing that? Let it be said, however, that an unhappy "Nekomata" is a very, _very_ dangerous person. Particularly while the protagonist is nowhere near his full power.**

**plums: I'm sorry you feel that way; (and also for not addressing this complaint earlier,) I tend to write about 2k sized chapters now, since five pages seems decent for something like this. I can't count the number of times that I've started reading a fic and then realized two things:**

**1. The chapters are about 20k long**

**2. I have fifty more chapters to go**

**SO, with that said, I try to stick to a point where that doesn't set in and make a reader potentially give up hope of ever reaching the story's end/waiting for the next update.**

**If the "not enough words" benchmark is really that important, my honest suggestion would be to leave this story and come back to it when there's more to it.**

**SinOfDisaster: Thank you! And I guess you're right. As someone who was never sheltered as a child, even canon!Naruto knows deep down that everything dies; it's just a matter of time. I've simply taken that to an extreme-he now prefers to beat time at its own game, or to help it along the way. I will say, however, that RIB:ASOSS!Naruto/Kitsune is decisively more dark than grey. (It may take a while to see, but it's definitely there. Just wait for the Chunin Exams.)**

**...**

**And, speaking of the Chunin Exams, I think we all know what arc comes after the Nami no Kuni one.**

**ON WITH THE SHOW!**

* * *

"Team Seven, reporting back from our mission to Nami no Kuni." Kakashi announced the words, and several of the working ninja around the Genin team looked up to find a certain orange-clad shinobi that was distinctly absent from the group.

"What of Naruto? Where is he, and why is he not with you?" The Hokage's questions came, as the three ninja knew that they would, and they could not defend themselves.

"... I don't know." Sakura admitted.

"We lost him." Sasuke stated, no emotion showing through the mask that was the standard facial expression of the Uchiha clan.

"Rather," Kakashi began with no uncertain amount of dread, "he lost us. We waited for him for two weeks; I'll give my full mission report in private."

The aging man was, certainly, shocked. This had never happened before; a Hidden Village that lost its Jinchuriki? The thought was absolutely horrifying, particularly for Konohagakure no Sato. They only had one demon-holder, and it was the strongest of the nine, so such a thing should have been guarded against at all costs! Kakashi should have known better than to let the boy out of his sight; it was part of the reason that the man had been made his Jonin-sensei: the Sharingan was partially known for being able to control the Kyubi! "How could you have- I don't understand the-"

"Allow me to explain..."

The dual-toned voice, in split octaves, was unmistakable. So, too, was the all-black uniform and armor; the sleeves were ripped on his shirt's shoulders, baring his allegiance to the one and only Village Hidden in the Leaves. Red eyes, as cold and impersonal as death itself, seemed to glow against the contrast of the black Kitsune mask... He stood to his full height after dropping from the ceiling, muscles completely relaxed and at ease. He would expect no attack here, certainly? Or was it that he was so confident and self-sure that he believed himself to be invulnerable in this situation?

In truth, it was a little of both.

"...On second thought, Hokage-sama, I don't think I will. Have fun with this one, Hatake-san."

The only difference in detail was incredibly minor, almost going unnoticed, and only the ever-searching eyes of a stunned Sarutobi Hiruzen managed to pick it out from the rest: a single black ring that rested on the left hand, on the finger next to the pinky. It had almost managed to escape his notice, but the soft gleam had caught his eye when it was struck by light. He remained silent, however, in respect to the man's privacy; perhaps, given his social disadvantages, he did not know what finger a marriage ring went on?

He certainly hoped so, in any case; whatever woman could catch the eye of the emotionally dead Kitsune would have to be a combination of beautiful, ruthless, and more-than-likely an S-class kunoichi.

"Fine." Kakashi scowled beneath his mask, but his tone remained distinctly calm. "Meet me on the bridge in the southwestern side of the village at noon... I have important news to tell all three of you, and _do not_ be late!"

The irony of such a statement was not lost on anyone in the room, but that number had been drastically reduced upon Kitsune's arrival; almost all of the hidden Anbu soldiers, be they known to the Hokage or not, had vanished. This was noticed by most people, save for Sakura and a few Chunin whose detection skills weren't trully up to par. For Sasuke, this was when a large section of the proverbial puzzle clicked into place... In fact, he believed that most of it was now complete.

_'The Anbu...they put the attempt to spread the news of Kitsune's return over their appointed task of guarding the Hokage. It's clear that he receives far more support from them, at least in spirit; he wasn't sealed away for being too powerful, at least not in the physical sense. He was the Anbu Captain of Han Roku, effectively the strongest soldier in Kurojutsu. Does this mean that he also presided over all factions of the Anbu as leader and Commander? Following that line, was he sealed away because they feared that he was plotting a coup against the upper echelon in Konoha?'_

Sasuke's thoughts would have been frighteningly accurate, save for one or two errors, if there weren't several massive questions that were brought on by the answers that they were supposedly provided by. It seemed as though, when he got the chance, he would need to pay a visit to the Uchiha's ancestral spirit...and not for a good reason. There wouldn't be enough time to do that now, however, so he decided to simply eat at a restaurant before he would go to the appointed bridge.

* * *

The news had spread like wildfire; in the Anbu barracks, one would have thought that all the elite emotional training had gone out the window. It was for a simple, and yet so strange, reason: Kitsune, the Dark Lord Kitsune, had returned from the dead after approximately eleven years. Kurojutsu, having been disbanded after his 'death,' was especially excited; their leader had returned, just as he had promised, and that meant that he would be there to lead them... There was much rejoicing.

However, in the far underground of Konoha, beneath even the sewers or the deepest of taproots, something far different was happening. It was not to be entirely unexpected, given the nature of the private above-ground celebrations, but still just as strange in its nature: a teenage boy, perhaps a year older than Kitsune, (or, perhaps, not) was plotting. His skin was a near-sickly white, his eyes and hair the deepest of inky blacks, and his clothing was just the same as Kitsune's own; rather than a sword, however, he wielded several tipless tanto knives and a paintbrush... Officially, he had no name.

Of course, _officially_, he also didn't exist.

Kitsune, however, had given him a name upon recruitment...well, no. 'Recruitment' was the wrong word, as he'd been with the man since before the beginning; in any case, his Commander had given him the name of 'Sai.' When asked why, the given answer had been far simpler than anything that he may have expected:

_"You are my general, my right hand, my greatest and truest of weapons, the Sai that breaks the swords of my enemies."_

Such was the truth, then, and thus he was Kitsune no Sai. He held no complaints about his position, not that he would have voiced them anyway; he worked for Shimura Danzo as one of the man's Ne operatives, an Anbu sect that was entirely loyal to the man and on par with the Kurojutsu of old. While Anbu and Kurojutsu attempted to suppress emotion, Ne generally succeeded in eradicating it to near-extinct status.

Such was the tale of the boy in the earth, awaiting the time when he would be free to walk the world once more; until such a moment as that, however, he would simply continue to plot and plan for his Commander. It was his fate, always and forever, to do such things...how else would the wielder know where to stab with their Sai?

* * *

At noon, after everything had been done with, they met at the appointed bridge; how did they know it was this specific bridge, when it was surrounded by at least five others?

They didn't obviously, but that was unimportant. The only thing that currently mattered was that they were all here, gathered together, for whatever announcement Kakashi was going to make...if he actually showed up on time, that is. The two Genin and former Anbu were leaning against the railings of the bridge, facing one another, with Sasuke and Sakura opposite of Kitsune.

"In all likelihood, he's going to nominate us- -that is, the two of you- -for the Chunin Exams; they're a series of three tests meant to determine if you have the ability to become a Chunin, though not all of those who complete the three tasks will manage to attain the rank. It's a very strange and delicate system, in any case, and you will need to follow my lead if it's going to happen..."

That was when Kakashi arrived, official-looking documents in his hand, giving his trademark eye-smile; he was clearly grinning beneath his mask, and he explained why; Kitsune, it seemed, had been correct in his assessment of the situation. They were to be at the Ninja Academy in one week for the first of the Chunin Exams, he believed in them, and much of the rest of the useless drivel a leader spouts when he is offering encouragement to his subordinates.

"Kitsune, you'll need to remove your mask for the exams; even for you, the hassle of explanations is too great to allow a supposed Genin to go in while wearing a black Anbu mask. And, with that said, I'll see the three of you at some point!"

The man vanished, only Kitsune's eyes managing to track him down the path he'd gone on, and the black-clad ninja growled in frustration. "Hatake is right, unfortunately, and you will need to be ready for absolutely anything; we don't know how these exams are going to turn out for us, or if there will even be a home-field advantage. As irritating as it is, you both need to train for the next five days before taking the sixth day off... And, a week from now, we will begin."

* * *

"Father?" Sakura asked, knocking on the door to his room; upon receiving confirmation of his presence, and permission to enter, she walked inside.

Sozetsu Haruno was an aging man, perhaps twice as old as Hatake Kakashi, and had fought with the man's father on his Genin team. It was part of the reason they had so much mutual respect...and, it seemed, the last Hatake was teaching his daughter. "Yes, Sakura-chan? What is it?"

"Kakashi-sensei recommended us for the Chunin Exams! Also, I'm back from the mission in Nami no Kuni!"

The laugh seemed to shake many years from his body, and his pink hair shook with him. Despite his paralyzed legs, he still found ways to enjoy life... And, in sparring with his daughter, had proven that his disability didn't make him lose any advantages as a ninja. In fact, one could argue, he'd become an even better shinobi thanks to his lack of mobility. His eyes, as keen as ever, could take in any situation's detail. His sign-making speed for the casting of jutsu was far increased. His skill with a sword hadn't diminished at all, though he now preferred a lance of some kind in its place.

This was the man who had been Kame, one of the four specialists in Han Roku, with Inu, Itachi, and Kitsune. However, that was only one part of him...the other piece to his puzzle was that of a caring husband and devoted father.

"The Chunin Exams? I remember going through those. The one where I advanced was in Kirigakure, although I took them three times; they're very difficult, but I'm certain that you'll be able to handle them much better than I did."

"Yes, about that...would you be willing to train me for a few days, dad? I'm not sure what the exams will be, and I don't think that it can hurt me if I get a new perspective on my training."

For Sozetsu, the answer was obvious. He couldn't teach her the few special Haruno techniques, passed down for generatons, but he could certainly give her some pointers in her chakra control and the basic application of her already-existing techniques. Perhaps he could even teach her a jutsu or two?

* * *

The next five days were filled, for Sasuke, with dangerous training; despite his desire to find the Uchiha no Yokai, the ancestral spirit of all Uchiha, (even those from before the founding of Konoha) he had yet to actively seek it out. On the sixth day, however, it seemed that Fate was impatient...the spirit came to him as he slept, though it was hardly a spirit at all, and waited for him to wake up.

It was a woman who could have been any age from fifteen to thirty, with a truly timeless look to her face. She wore a full-body suit, likely formed of thin mesh, that was marked in certain areas with blood-colored symbols and markings. Her eyes were red, an even deeper shade than Kitsune's. Her skin was alabaster, as though she'd been indoors for her entire life, and her white hair went to the small of her back; her expression was calm and contemplative, but that was before her face twisted into a sick and demented smile... Her laugh, when it came, was a single expulsion of air through clenched teeth; it was harsh, and created a loud "KSSSH" sound as it emanated.

* * *

"So they found one another..." Kitsune grinned, calmly watching the scene unfold. He'd told 'the spirit' to do no harm to him until after he returned home from the Chunin Exams. "...I'm not sure that's a good thing."

**[It's bad. It's very, very, _very _bad. Unfortunately, though, it can't be taken back; if he's not killed by her training, then I'll eat my own tails.]**

Laughing at the fox's doubts was only good for a minor distraction from the scene before him; it was simply too good to miss.

This was the revered (or, at least, _he _revered her) warrior who had survived for uncounted centuries, several thousands of years; she could manipulate blood with her abilities, and was also the host to the vicious chakra of some demonic source...it was the wife of the Rikudo Sennin: Shiro. In truth, she was also one of the few that Kitsune believed to be trustworthy. Only with her help would his ultimate plans come to fruition, and she was also his ancestor of two sides...

_**Believe it!**_


	7. The First Exam, Part One

**I have, at long last, returned with a new chapter for _Reign In Blood_... Not really much to comment on, as far as reviews go, so let's just get on with it.**

* * *

It was time for the Chunin Exams to begin; Naruto waited outside of Konoha's academy, where the first of their trials-well, trials for those who were actually Genin-was to be held. Many teams passed by him, deciding that he was beneath their notice; a handful seemed interested in him, and one or two individual ninja even managed to suspect him of something.

Of course, he couldn't fall prey to boredom; such a thing was unbecoming of a shinobi, particularly one of "Naruto's" caliber. To prevent such a thing from happening, he began to make a mental list of facts, observations, and thoughts. Each was based on something about his surroundings, an attempt to ensure that he stayed entirely aware of what was happening around him.

* * *

Fact: There are five hundred teams competing in this year's Chunin Exams.

Observation: Most of these teams are from minor villages.

Thought: Most of them will die.

Fact: Most of these teams are not paying attention to me.

Observation: They seem very weak in terms of age and power.

Thought: They will be the first ones to fail and die.

Fact: Both of my "teammates" are late.

Observation: I am being spied upon.

Thought: It must be strange to spy on a team that is missing two-thirds of itself.

Fact: That Kusagakure kunoichi is looking at me.

Observation: It's very creepy.

Thought: She will try to kill me at some point.

Fact: One of the Sunagakure Genin entering these exams is their Jinchuriki.

Observation: He's entirely unstable.

Thought: He'll try to kill me at some point.

Fact: The Raikage's nephew and the Mizukage's daughter are participating in these exams.

Observation: They seem to lead their apparently sub-par teammates, likely due to their upbringings.

Thought: They will try to kill one another, or me, at some point.

* * *

He waited, sitting and meditating, for half an hour; that was when Sakura showed up. She had been running, but was only slightly winded upon arrival-a major feat, considering her abilities from before the mission to Nami no Kuni. Her long hair had been cut, now going to a point that was slightly beneath her ears, but it was still the same embarrassingly bright shade of neon pink that would give her away on any stealth mission...she looked at him quizzically, as he didn't have his mask on, and he shook his head; now wasn't the time to discuss that.

Sasuke showed up just a few minutes later, looking very pale and quite possibly afraid. He had seen the spirit of the Uchiha, the white-haired woman of age and power that defied all understanding...he had seen her, and knew why Itachi had left her untouched in his massacre: she was beyond him. She would outshine his brother any day of the week, he knew, and for that he was afraid; he had not spoken to her, only viewing her terrifying visage of a smile before bolting from the room as quickly as he could, and he hadn't looked back.

"Well, now that we're all here..." Naruto grinned, motioning the two of them to get close to him. "...don't look now, but we're being spied on. Also, since I'm not wearing my mask, just call me Naruto; otherwise, I am Kitsune. The first test, as far as I know-from what I managed to get out of some old friends that are still in Anbu-is one that tests intellect or problem-solving; that's your strength, Sakura, so I'll let you handle it unless you need my help. The second test is going to be one that emphasizes team survival...as long as you stay close to me, we should be fine. The final test is either team or individual combat, which is why you should let me handle whatever comes in the second exam-that way, you save your chakra for a time when you'll actually need it..."

"Alright." Sasuke agreed, the color returning to his face with his confidence.

"Let's do it!" Sakura cheered, pumping a fist in the air.

"No, not yet." Naruto laughed. "You two go on ahead, though...I just have a trio of gnats to deal with."

The two ran off, towards the growing line that slowly moved inside of the building, leaving Naruto behind. He slowly turned around, releasing the genjutsu on his eyes so that they reverted to their demonic coloration. A grin split his face, teeth turning into blade-like fangs as he opened his mouth; when his voice resounded, it was as though he used the voice-distorter from his Kitsune mask.

**"Now then, let's see just how good you three are. Also, I'd like to thank you in advance for your help-itadakimasu!"**

* * *

Naruto found his two teammates to still be waiting outside of the Academy, and the irony struck him that their exams were going to start inside of a school.

"You have, uh, a little something on your lips."

"I know." He gave a toothy grin, laughing. "But, since you seem so concerned, I'll remove it."

Remove it he did...by licking his lips and tasting the not-quite-dried blood that rested on them; it was the girl's, he noted, as it tasted like iron instead of the coppery taste of the two Otogakure boys.

"The path is being blocked by Izumo and Kotetsu, the gate guards." Sasuke notified him.

"Always remember that there's more than one way to skin a cat, children..." Naruto's retort came quickly. "...particularly when the cat's name isn't Tora, or when it's dead, or when it isn't really a cat at all."

With that having been said, Naruto walked to the back of the building before he began to walk up the side. It was a short walk for him, as he had been trained to use this technique with glass; this allowed for him to move faster and with less energy loss. Sakura was the next to reach the window he had opened-or, rather, made-and Sasuke was barely behind her. They entered into a room that wasn't yet filled, and surprised the proctors with their arrival.

"We're here a little early, I guess, but that can't be helped."

The proctors, who were all recognizable to Naruto as members of the Torture and Interrogation branch of Konoha's intelligence-gathering division, vanished; the trio were left to wait for more people to arrive...soon enough, Chunin hopefuls began to enter. Eventually, even the newly-minted rookies of the most recent graduation period-those of Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke's class-showed up. As the rookies all celebrated their arrival, Team Seven made certain to distance themselves from the group.

"Sasuke-kun!"

Of course, a ditzy blonde could ruin the greatest of plans.

"Dammit."

Now that they were being forced into the group, they did their best to remain as silent as they could; it didn't help that they were repeatedly either on the receiving ends of jokes, in Naruto and Sakura's cases, or being fawned over by Ino...they did their absolute best to passively let their anger and discomfort show, and none more than Naruto. Around this time, an elder Konoha ninja walked up to them; he had wide, circular glasses, gray-white hair, and mostly dressed in purple.

"You may want to keep it down...people are starting to stare."

"Oh?" Kiba asked, smirking confidently. "Who are you?"

"My name is Yakushi Kabuto. As you can see, I'm a fellow servant of the Leaf..."

_That's an interesting way to turn a phrase_, Naruto thought,_particularly when it's neither a lie nor a truth. He serves when it's convenient, he'll act when it's asked of him, but he is a ninja to the core._

"And I also happen to deal in the realm of information."

_Utter bullshit. He's not an informant, he's a spy-a damn good one, at that-and a medic. If he's going to lie like that, he should at least make it..._

Kabuto whipped out a stack of cards. "These are my notes on the current Chunin Exams, ranging from participating ninja to the proctors and beyond. Ask away, my young friends!"

_...convincing._

"Alright, now we're talking! Show me the six people you'd rate as the most dangerous competition here." Kiba practically demanded the information, but Kabuto merely smiled and played the part of the good sempai.

"Well, since you didn't ask for an order, I'll just go as I find them. First up is Sabaku no Gaara, of Sunagakure, youngest child of the Yondaime Kazekage. Teammates are his elder siblings. Superior ninjutsu, other capabilities unknown, has completed one hundred A-rank missions and come back...entirely unharmed. He specializes in Sunaton elemental techniques.

"Next is Hyuga Neji, of Konohagakure; member of the Hyuga clan, teammates are Higurashi Tenten and Rock Lee. Taijutsu is Jonin-level, chakra control is likely at Anbu-level, and he specializes in the Jyuken Taijutsu techniques of his clan.

"Third is Yotsuki Yamato, of Kumogakure, nephew of the Raikage. Teammates are Daigen Fujiwara and Kyomei Feitsimi. Taijutsu is approximately Jonin-level, ninjutsu is also Jonin-level, kenjutsu is Chunin-level. Knows Raiton and Doton elemental jutsu.

"Fourth is Terumi Mangetami, of Kirigakure, daughter of the Mizukage. Teammates are Tetsuo Ryu and her cousin Hozuki Suigetsu. Jonin-level Ninjutsu, Chunin-level genjutsu, Chunin-level taijutsu, Jonin-level Kenjutsu. Has been trained by her mother in Yoton, Futton, Suiton, Katon, and Doton techniques.

"Fifth is Uzumaki Naruto, of Konohagakure. Orphan, teammates are Haruno Sakura and Uchiha Sasuke. Knowledgeable in several elemental jutsu styles.

"Oh, what do you know? The last person you asked for is me!"

Kabuto leapt away, smirking, just as the proctors arrived.

"Alright, you brats, shut up! My name is Morino Ibiki, and I am the proctor for the first of the Chunin Exams; the most important thing for you to know is that this exam has three separate parts-one for each team member-and that failing any one of them will eliminate your entire team from continuing on through the exams!"

Team Seven looked at one another, remembering what Naruto had said earlier about the first exam being an information-gathering exercise. What could Ibiki be planning by doing this sort of thing, and wasn't splitting them apart tantamount to making it about the individual rather than the team?

"The first part is that of a written test. Draw straws, if you must, but send someone up here from your team who will take it!"

Both boys looked to Sakura, who was already moving up to the front of the room; written tests were her absolute element, the greatest possible thing that could have happened to her, and so she would do it. Once all of those who went to take the test had been moved from the room, Ibiki spoke once more:

"The second portion is that of puzzle-solving, so decide who goes up for this one!"

Sasuke and Naruto quietly decided that the latter was much better-equipped to handle unknown situations, and so the Uchiha moved up and was escorted out with the rest of those in his group.

"Now, for those of you who are left in this room, I will personally escort you to your test...the final piece of the First Exam: interrogation."

* * *

"Sir, we've received reports of three corpses. They were identified as Abumi Zaku, Kinuta Dosu and Tsuchi Kin, all from Otogakure. The strange thing is, sir, that all three of them were drained entirely of their blood-not a single drop was found, whether it was in them or in the area surrounding them."

The Hokage's eyes widened, his pipe nearly falling from his mouth; he knew of only one person who killed that way, but he had to be certain. "Where, exactly, were their wounds? Surely there was some manner of puncturing?"

"That's just it, sir; their throats were all punctured at the jugular. Why did you ask?"

"No reason at all, Shika-san. You may return to your duties."

Only one person, in all of the history of the Elemental Nations, had ever been known to kill by vampirism. They had been a mere child, cried out against as a demon and a vicious murderer; such accusations seemed more than relevant, given the fact that the deceased were drained of all blood and were left as white as ghosts. And, unfortunately, a political scandal was just waiting to happen...

...he'd sent that person right into the middle of the Chunin Exams.


	8. The First Exam, Part Two

**A lot of you guessed that I'd put in vampires, or made Naruto/Kitsune a vampire...as well as those of you who pointed out the scientific fact that a cadaver retains some small amount of blood after death.**

**To answer both questions, there's a simple solution: the jutsu work-around. The Narutoverse is vast, and essentially a writer's paradise; virtually anything can, has, or will happen. Uchiha Madara summoned a meteor and could command the Kyubi, so what's a blood-removal technique by comparison? RIB:ASOSS!Naruto is a cynic and a sadist, a tormentor and an assassin, and certainly wouldn't be above torturing weaker shinobi by stealing their blood and drinking it.**

**That's all I really have to say for now, since that's what people commented on.**

* * *

"Sir." An Anbu arrived, dropping to the Hokage's side in a kneeling bow; his mask was Shishi, the Lion, and blacker than night...a member of the former Kurojutsu division.

"Yes, Shishi?" Hiruzen asked, not bothering to look up from his work; he had enough to do as it was, with the Chunin Exams and the trade that their participants (and outsiders) brought in. "Please make it quick...I have a lot to finish."

"The corpses of the three Otogakure Genin have vanished." The political disaster was delivered with all the force, and the subtlety, of a sledgehammer.

"What do you mean, 'vanished?' Surely there's some trace of chakra, some scent, _something_!"

"If there were, I wouldn't have mentioned this to you."

That was true enough; Shishi, even before being put into Anbu and Kurojutsu, had always been a very "solve-it-yourself" type of person. He would have gone to the Inuzuka clan, or perhaps the Aburame, rather than to the Hokage...something that had undoubtedly saved the aging Sarutobi from several dozens of hours of paperwork. He would also have already tried finding where they went, and been unable, in order to self-justify visiting the Hokage.

"Very well. I'm afraid that we can't do much right now; keep trying on your own, or with other Anbu."

Shishi nodded, vanishing as he flashed away. Both of them knew that the order was merely one that would keep them both busy for a while; if a former Kurojutsu member could not find three bloodless corpses, then that meant there was someone who was just as powerful and skilled as Shishi was...that person had taken the bodies with them, hiding their presence all the while, and vanished. What made it worse was that the body-thief was inside of Konoha's walls, and more than likely to be a citizen of the village.

Oh, the problems this would cause...

* * *

Sakura blanched at the news she looked down upon; she could take tests, and always got perfect scores on them, but this was ridiculous! How could she know the terminal velocity of a civilian as opposed to a Jonin of the same measurements, which implied that chakra actually had a physical mass? What on earth were Heffalumps and Woozles? Why does it matter that the phone cord is snapped in the fight against GLaDOS?

The questions didn't even make sense!

Irritated, she simply turned her paper over and went to sleep...oblivious to the rampant cheating that revolved around her, of course. Why would she bother to pay any attention to that, particularly when she could catch up on her beauty sleep? Sasuke would be-

She stopped the thought where it stood, hammering it into the dark recesses of her mind; she'd decided, during the week that her father had spent training her, that she would have to be a respectable ninja before she wanted to think about having a boyfriend or a family. She was an adult in the eyes of ninja and civilians, as an eighteen-year-old girl should be, but was easily the weakest of her trio...well, when Naruto/Kitsune wanted to be part of the trio. Otherwise, it was just a pair. In any case, she was the weak link in their chain. Sasuke, even without his Sharingan, had trained day and night for more than eleven years in the hope that it would make him strong enough to kill his brother: Uchiha Itachi, "the Second Coming of Madara."

There was no point in trying to compare herself to Naruto. He claimed to be at less than half of his strength, or perhaps at fifty percent, but his chakra supply was so utterly massive that a single weak jutsu would become a gateway to death with only a "slight" overcharge. And when her father had trained her, she had heard stories...some of them were simply educational, to help her work with Naruto as a teammate; a few were meant to make her aware of what he was able to do if he willed. Of all of them, however, only one had truly frightened her.

In their last mission together, the Kitsune had revealed one of his own personal techniques; it hadn't been elemental, or meant to fit his "berserker" style of battle. It was one that allowed him to continue on in life for as long as a month without any need for sustenance or sleep. He would use his chakra to lengthen his canines into fangs, hollowing them out and connecting them to his esophagus. From there, he would bite into them and use his chakra to drain them of their blood...when it was done, his teeth would go back to normal and he would absorb all the nutrients in the blood, bones, marrow, and even their organs. He could resume normal patterns of eating and sleeping when the time was up, or choose to drink blood once again; it had proven invaluable on many missions, giving Han Roku an automatic watchman and ever-alert fighter. If the chakra of the Kyubi was used, he could temporarily re-animate the corpse into a miniature kamikaze Bijudama.

She wondered if he'd been telling the truth...and seeing Naruto with blood on his lips had effectively confirmed her suspicions.

* * *

Naruto laughed inwardly, seeing the terror on the face of the woman he was sent to interrogate. After being given the simple instruction, "make her tell you where the second exam is held, and then head there," he had been left entirely alone; even _his_ shoddy sensory skills were unable to pick up any chakra signatures outside of the room he was in. The closest that he could pick up, as he was only able to recognize high-level signatures, was dozens of yards away from the windowless room.

He had nothing to fear now, and could do as he wished.

A single hand-sign brought forth his mask, and a short search of memory reminded him of the signs needed to retrieve his armor from the seals which they'd been placed in.

Even if it was incomplete, as he could not summon forth Katon, Suiton, Futton, or Enton, or readily call upon Kurama's chakra, and he did not have his true sword...he was Kitsune once more; the Dark Lord had returned, in the flesh, to spread war and terror anew.

"I could do it, you know."

The woman's eyes were wide, tears coming forth and falling freely. There was no doubt that she knew what he was talking about; she was bound, and there was nobody to hear her scream. But would he actually rape her?

"Or I could choose the worse road, the painful road. Take all these knives of mine, this sword, and a whole host of needles. Decorate you in red, stuffed with black steel, and then pull them out so that you can taste them...over and over again."

His boots clapped against the smooth cement floor, and he bent down before her face so that she stared into the sanguine eyes of a man who was born to end lives. He was the truth, Omega, the end of all things; he held no sympathy, only a lust for battle and slaughter and death. A smooth finger traced her jawline, running down her throat, past the swell of her breasts. Her breath hitched at the tickle brought by the movement along her side, down her inner thigh and back up again, until his fingers were dancing just above her core.

"The choice is yours, woman. Get fucked like a whore...or become a live experiment on pain thresholds and how pain turns into joy. Of course, there's another way out. You just have to tell me where the second of the Chunin Exams is held."

She seemed to get her spark back, spitting at him. The saliva missed, but her words only sealed her fate. Even if she hadn't been a ninja for long enough to know much about the darkly-famed Kitsune, and therefore didn't realize that his threat had carried weight, it still didn't give her much of an excuse.

"Do your worst, asshole."

Her screams resonated throughout the building.

* * *

It was a small cube, nine squares on each face; the idea was to match all the colors to their respective sides, as denoted by the center square on each side...it shouldn't have been difficult. Sasuke ate puzzles like this for breakfast, and this one shouldn't have been any different.

Of course, he'd never come across a Rubik's Cube before. The thing was supposed to fall apart upon completion, and then it would reveal the location of the Second Exam; that somewhere, he guessed, wasn't a place most people knew about. Otherwise, why would they bother concealing it?

It didn't help that he was working against a two-hour time limit, or that his teammate's failures in their respective portions...though he doubted that either would fail, even if he had no clue what Naruto's piece was...would fail him as well. As he continued to work, the more he was conscious of time; eventually, he hurled the cube against the cement wall to hear an incredibly satisfying crack. Moving towards the fallen diabolical invention, he saw that he'd managed to separate all the blocks from the frame; a small scrap of paper, old and weathered, revealed itself.

Picking it up, and still in shock that he'd spent an hour and a half effectively twiddling his thumbs only to accidentally succeed, he read the message aloud.

* * *

Anko waited outside of the designated grounds for the second Chunin Exam, grinning giddily at the first children to arrive; they were Kakashi's boys, and the girl wasn't likely to be too far behind. "Looks like the scarecrow wasn't joking about their skill." She laughed to herself. "I wonder which one was the interrogator?"

The response came from behind her, directly in her ear. "That would be me."

She whipped around on reflex, a kunai held in reverse to stab into the sneak's neck, but he wasn't there; he was just under her swing, and came up to slice her jawline with his nails. Having jumped with it, he managed to spin around the Mitarashi's lithe body while lapping up her blood.

"Tastes like poison." He offered. "Must take quite a man to haul you in, Snake."

"Foxy boy?" Anko laughed. "I should've known that only one brat would be good enough to get the drop on me."

She held a soft spot for the boy in her heart, mostly for the stigma that was forced on him. She wouldn't play very far with him, but...that wasn't to say that she wouldn't play. She didn't get to play with very many people any more, particularly men of any state that was some mix of good-looking and sober.

"And, as a gift for managing that, how about you tell me why we're waiting outside of Konoha's most dangerous zone: Training Ground Sixty-Six, Hell's Eden?"

"You'll find out when everyone else does, you brat."

"I can make you scream just as easily as the whore in the dungeons."

The thought gave Anko pause for a second...and then she laughed harder than she had in a long time. It was something that hadn't happened for several years, and took several minutes to slow down. Kami damn him, the foxy boy could _play _this game!

Besides, it's not like he would have to wait for very long...other Chunin-hopefuls were on their way to Hell's Eden.

However, only four people would truly shine. The first was Sabaku no Gaara, unstable Jinchuriki of the Ichibi; second was Terumi Mangetami, who was just as beautiful as her mother; third was Yotsuki Robin, nephew of the Raikage and Hachibi Jinchuriki. Last, of course, was Naruto. Kitsune, the shadow of death that crept along the world once more, a dark star that shone brighter than any of those that lived in the light.

_**Believe it.**_


	9. The Second Exam, Part One

**Hey, people. It's time for an update, so prepare yourselves.**

**Also, a fun fact: I originally wrote this on my ipod, and each chapter was bigger than the last; by now, chapter nine, I think I was pushing fifteen thousand words...and, on my ipod, I'm at chapter twenty. (I think it's about fifty thousand words)...of course, I also covered Nami no Kuni in one chapter, as well as the Chunin Exams in one chapter. I also tend to ramble in my writing, which is why my word count is so abnormally high for those.**

**Anyway, let's get on with the show.**

* * *

"Hell's Eden," Anko began, looking at the assembled Genin, "isn't a very nice place. I would much rather have hosted the second exam in Training Ground Forty-Four, the Forest of Death, but some pushy councilmen decided that we'd have a bloodbath on our hands instead of a nice and civilized game of ninja capture-the-flag."

She held up sealing tags, each of which held a number on them. "Each of these seals, as you can see, has a number; you'll be given one at random, and they range from one through four...that is your point value. It goes up when you kill another of your competitors, and you gain however many points they had. To pass the second exam, your entire team of three must survive with a point total of at least five per person. If only two team members are alive, the required point value is ten. If only one team member is alive at the end, then they must have a point total of thirty to advance. The second exam is over when nine-tenths of you are dead...as monitored by the seals."

She had under-emphasized the difficulty they would face. Hell's Eden was a barren wasteland of rock, with several hot springs placed equidistant from one another, and large reptiles roamed it without care or mercy.

"There's no shortage of food or water, assuming that you can kill it or get to it, and that might come in handy; this exam will continue until only one in every ten of you remains alive, no matter how long that may take. Hell, stay in there for the rest of your lives! It'd sure make my job easier!"

Her laugh was met with moderate levels of fear, a psychotic grin or two, a small amount of resignation, and Naruto's supreme overconfidence in himself.

"In all seriousness, however, you're allowed to be a coward. Your team will go with you, though..."

More than a few teams left, Naruto noted, and he idly realized that many of them were those he'd deemed weak while he'd waited for Sasuke and Sakura to show up.

In the end, however, he would continue to do as he did...kill all who opposed him, sword in hand, a vicious beast of murder and hatred. That was how he had always done things, and how he would continue; it was all that he'd ever known in his life, and all that he needed to know. It was how he, Nekomata, the Ichibi's host, and almost all of the rest of their kind, had survived. They had turned their abilities into an economic asset; killing was their business, and business was good.

He and Sasuke, with Sakura behind them, were the first to step up and receive their numbers; Naruto had a four, while his teammates both had threes.

"There's no way that these numbers are random." Sakura said. "They're giving us numbers that represent our threat levels...anyone who successfully kills another automatically gets their number, a presumed level of power, boosted. It's simulating the Bingo Book, though on a smaller scale."

Naruto smirked, glancing at her out of the corner of his eye. "Congratulations, you picked it up faster than I thought you would."

They went to their assigned gate, waiting for the whistle; once it blew, Naruto led them in. "Follow my lead...this is almost exactly like one of the Anbu entry tests that I oversaw, except that this has a little more killing and a lot less violence."

"A _little _more killing? Ninety percent of the people here are going to die!"

"And the standard Anbu rate is fifty, though it's been known to fluctuate...get down!"

A child-sized lizard launched past the trio, who'd dropped to the ground and were on their bellies. It was an orange-tan color, feathered, with green eyes; it had a long tail and stood upright, with clawed hands and feet, and it had back toe-claws that curved forward. Several more of the creatures came forward, beady eyes searching for the prey that they knew was there...velociraptors. While not very large, and certainly not too great a challenge for high-level Genin when on their own, a large enough pack would manage turn some Chunin into a nicely-sized dinner.

"I thought dinosaurs were extinct!" Sakura hissed, as quietly as she could.

"They are," Naruto's tone was calm, considering the situation, "in the wild. I can only think of one person who'd be twisted enough to bid for an exam to be held here, where velociraptors are probably the least of our worries."

Only Shimura Danzo would do this. It fit his bill, after all; what better way for a group of Genin to prove that they were ready to be shinobi than to pit them in a deathmatch with both nature and one another? All of the last rites had been said, little white boxes already prepared for them, letters of condolences simply waiting to be mailed...and only Shimura Danzo would think it was a fine idea to set relics of the ancient world upon young adults who would no doubt be frightened of the unknown...thankfully, however, he'd been warned.

If Naruto had been able to feel nostalgic, then he would have, but it was neither the time nor place. For now, it was time to do what he could to keep his teammates alive. Namely, killing the velociraptor pack.

"I'll be back."

Naruto vanished from between the two Genin, materializing from the ground up in the middle of the dinosaurs.

"Hyoton: Bakugan." A sphere of ice formed in front of him, almost as large as he was, before shattering into shards and flying out. Each of the velociraptors was killed, though several of the frozen shards came dangerously close to Sasuke and Sakura...not that they would say anything about it, given that he'd just saved their lives.

"We'll need to keep moving. If worse comes to worst, let me do the fighting; I have more chakra than either of you, even when put together and multiplied a thousandfold, so there shouldn't be too much of a problem."

"What about the other Konoha teams?"

"...Sakura, we can't worry about them. Your only goal is to stay alive, and to pass the exam if you can."

"What about your Kage Bunshin? You can make hundreds of them without denting your chakra supply, so why not send some to at least help out the other rookies?"

"Because that would defeat the purpose of the test. They must pass or fail on their own power, and I won't help them unless they can find and reach us...come."

He strode off, into the wasteland, not bothering to look back and see if Sasuke or Sakura would follow him.

* * *

"Mother wants your blood, and it will be given to her. Not yet, but..." Sabaku no Gaara trailed off, staring at the auburn-haired beauty before him. "...soon enough."

"You're the insane Jinchuriki of the Ichibi, aren't you?" It wasn't a question. "I know how to handle them. My mother killed one, and it was stronger than yours."

"The Sanbi host was a pathetic whelp. His Biju may have been strong, but his body and mind were weak from its torture. I am in control, in my element, and not afraid of some lava-spewing whore and a pair of sword-guards who are weaker than she is."

Just as a confrontation seemed imminent, a massive lizard ran past them chasing two Genin and a rotating ball of flesh; all thought of battle drifted away. By the time the tyrannosaur had left, and Gaara looked back, the Kirigakure Genin were long gone...he began talking to himself, making his elder siblings start to edge away from him. They didn't get far, however; the ground rose up beneath them, pulsing out in a circular wave, throwing them into the air. It also revealed a trio of Genin from some minor village, whose hitae-ate sigil wasn't even recognizable, making Gaara's grin turn into a face-splitting smile.

"Mother is thirsty."

* * *

"That's another three dead at the hands of the Kazekage's children, bringing the total kill tally to fifteen." One of the proctors announced.

"Oh, good! That means that there's only..." Anko did the math in her head. "...five hundred and sixty-one that are left to die."

"This is going to be a really, _really _long exami-"

They all felt it. It was a feeling that some knew better than others, and none more so than Anko herself; this vile presence, even from far away, was unmistakable. The seal on her collarbone flared up, harshly painful, and she growled.

"He's in there. I don't care how, and I don't care why, but he's in there and I'm going to kill him."

As she was getting up, Ibiki shook his head. "Even so, we can't interfere. We're proctors, not nannies, and he might end up dead anyway."

"How?" She was outraged. "There's hundreds of Genin in there, and that's probably enough to count as a decent warm-up for a daily workout!"

"Maybe," he responded, "but there's another 'snake in the grass,' as it were. You know Kakashi's kids? Take a look at the video of the blonde boy doing his interrogation."

She didn't need to see it, but she put the tape into the VCR. After the first few seconds of footage, she stopped it.

"You're _shitting _me. He's the-"

"Exactly, Anko. If anyone needs to worry for their life, it's probably your bastard of a teacher."

* * *

They'd found a hot spring, and filled their canteens from it before Naruto poisoned it with the Kyubi's chakra. Sakura had been about to bathe, but had decided against it. "They can smell that you're clean." Naruto said. "The water smells like blood, and they'll come to it like moths to an open flame."

Now they weren't too far beyond the now-poisoned spring, still moving around the edge of the grounds; while Naruto was confident in his ability to dominate the opposition, Sakura wasn't as certain of her skills. Neither boy could blame her, of course...she'd spent her school years pining after Sasuke, rather than training, and was weak because of it. She was still stronger than many girls or young women, given peculiar skeletal and muscular structures that were passed down from her father's side of the family, but wasn't really equipped to do anything but act as a support fighter.

"Don't look now, but there's a giant snake behind us."

Of course, both of them looked; just as Naruto had said, there was a massive snake. It melted away to reveal a white-skinned man with reptilian yellow eyes, whose fanged smile was anything but pleasant or welcoming. "Good senses, for one so young."

"Not really. You're just not very good with illusions; the snake gave off too much chakra to be a natural flesh-and-blood creature. Since you're here, you might as well tell me...what's your business, infiltrating the Chunin Exams under the guise of a Genin, Orochimaru?"

The snake summoner laughed, no longer bothering to hide his malevolence. "I could ask you the same thing. Kabuto tells me that you've re-awakened, Kitsune, but all I see is a grown child whose thoughts outstrip his years. I will, however, give you back your blade; I never did figure out how to use it, so it's worthless to me."

The cloth-wrapped sword was thrown through the air, and Naruto caught it by the hilt. Swinging it down, the black wrapping fell away to reveal a falx with a lengthened hilt. Its onyx-colored edge gleamed softly in the low light of dusk, the rest of it a pure "blue" steel. Though it was far younger than any of the rest, it was considered one of the Ten Spirit Blades; the others were the swords of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen, Orochimaru's own Kusanagi blade, and the Sword of Totsuka.

"It was forged using my chakra. Only myself and my descendants will ever be able to use it as anything but a normal sword."

"You're a Jinchuriki, and impotent because of it. That sword is yours, and yours alone, and you know it."

Both of the other Genin were watching, and filed the term "Jinchuriki" away for later discovery. It wasn't important yet, so they wouldn't worry about it; first, they would need to get out of this confrontation alive...and their chances of that seemed to drop exponentially when Orochimaru's gaze drifted towards their direction.

"In any case, I'm not here for you. Our fight will be later, as agreed. I've come for dear Sasuke-kun, to mark him as my next...vessel."

"Agreement or not, snake, I can't allow that. Even here and now, I should at least be able to match you if I go all out." It wasn't a threat, but a statement. Though the words were different, the meaning was conveyed. _Touch him and you'll answer to me._

"Then dance with me, Black Fox, under the light of the moon. Show me the power of the man they call 'Shiki,' death, in the Eldar Tongue."

The challenge uttered, Naruto performed the hand signs necessary to summon his armor and mask; he was hatred. He was the night. He was a mockery of humanity, the exemplary evidence for all that was wrong in the world. He was Kitsune, and he would slay Orochimaru where he stood.

_**Believe it.**_


	10. The Second Exam, Part Two Prelims Intro

**I know, I'm back fairly quickly. After some editing, I think that I've achieved a fairly decent chapter.**

**So, with that said, let's get on with the show.**

* * *

"As the winter winds sweep through the trees, so shall this blade sweep through you." Kitsune's blade glowed softly, under the yellow moonlight, his blood-red eyes filled with thousands of years of hatred. His rage was passed down for generations, hundreds of Kurama's Jinchuriki manifesting their strength.

"As the lion hunts, so shall I hunt you." Several dozen Kage Bunshin, created without a need for hand signs, separated themselves from him. They ran off, into the night, to appear when they were needed.

"As the nonexistent gods judge, so shall I judge you." The blade's glow increased, to a brilliant blue-white that hid the blade's true edge under its light. His stance widened at the shoulders, one arm pulling out his second sword before tossing it back to Sakura...while she wasn't about to question the benefits of extra steel, she didn't know how to properly wield it.

"As the demons feast," Kitsune's voice was a growling rasp now, with clawed fingertips poking out from his gloves, "so shall this demon feast on you."

All that they could see was the residue of Kitsune's immense chakra output, which was solid enough to remain intact for several seconds. Rather than blue, however, it was a distinctly vile-looking red. One after another, the clones blitzed Orochimaru in an attempt to slice the man into pieces. Even their swords had left visible chakra traces...and, at the end, the man had been diced into dozens of chunks.

All of the flesh and bone, however, quickly showed itself to be no more than mud; Orochimaru wasn't an S-class shinobi for nothing, after all, and such a simple trick would never have worked. "You're not fighting very fairly, Kitsune. What would you do if I decided to do the same?"

"Kill you just as easily as I normally would." The answer came without pause, absolute certainty in the Kurojutsu leader's voice.

"Your pride makes you blind, fox-child. Be careful that it doesn't consume you."

"This, coming from the man whose summoned creatures constantly threaten to kill him. Go ahead, summon Manda, let him vanish and tell the animal peoples that I have returned. I, Kitsune, Yami-sama, the one who wields the summon-killer." His voice was smug, and Orochimaru knew that his gambit had failed. "Who are you to lecture me on pride, betraying Konoha in your experiments on human life? Angered and spurred to violence by Namikaze Minato being chosen over you for the position of Yondaime Hokage? Keep your forked tongue behind your teeth!"

Swords clashed, grinding against one another, slashing and parrying at speeds neither could track; their hands were moving too quickly for either to see, and a single mistake would mean death...a mistake that they both made. Orochimaru was split from navel to jaw, while half of Kitsune's throat was torn out.

_Kurama!_

**[I'm on it, but you're going to have to hold still and hope that he takes just as long!]**

It was a vain and short-lived hope, to be sure, as Orochimaru cast his skin-shedding technique and hit the ground running. Kitsune wasn't pinned down for much longer, though, and managed to twist himself out of the way just before the Kusanagi blade would have gutted his armor; while it was reinforced with seals, and was virtually indestructible under normal circumstances, one of the ten Spirit Blades would be able to shred it like cheese.

The dodge made him vulnerable, if not to a sword strike, and Orochimaru seized his chance...with five quick hand signs, and a laugh, he had won. "Gogyo Fuin!"

The five-pronged sealing technique struck Kitsune on the back of his neck, right on the spinal cord. While it wouldn't be enough to kill, it would certainly keep him knocked out for a few days...of course, knowing that he was a Jinchuriki, it could be as little as six hours before he woke and managed to unseal himself.

"Now, children..." Trying to hide had been useless, as Orochimaru's fluorescent snake-eyes cut through the darkness with all the ease of a flashbang seal-tag. "...let's play a game. It's called, 'how far can I run before Orochimaru catches me.' First, though, I think that I'll help you and your black-clad friend." A swipe at his neck removed Orochimaru's number, as well as two of his compatriots' number-seals; Sasuke and Sakura's necks glowed, their own numbers increasing.

"Oh, and one more thing." The rogue's mouth opened wide, revealing fangs that would make any snake proud, and his neck extended. "You lose!"

* * *

"His energy's gone, and there have been three more casualties. Total death count is fifty-seven."

Anko relaxed, the burning sensation on her neck beginning to abate. "So...he did it. He killed him, or at least drove him off."

"What did I tell you, Anko? Think of his past, and who he was. If anyone could have done it, it would have been him."

"Life readings on Genin zero-zero-one, Uzumaki Naruto, are gone. He's either dead or in a coma."

Every other head whipped in Aoi's direction as he spoke, shock and horror present on their faces.

"Life readings on Genin zero-zero-two, Uchiha Sasuke, are almost gone. He is in a jutsu-induced coma. Life readings on Genin zero-zero-three, Haruno Sakura, are almost gone. She has broken most of the bones in her body and will likely require medical attention some time within the next two days."

Ibiki was conflicted, but his hardened gaze held resolve. "Get them an evacuation, now."

"Sir?"

"You heard me, Iida. Get those three out of that hellhole."

"Didn't you say that we couldn't-"

"Get. Them. Out."

"But-"

Ibiki's rage exploded. "I am not going to lose one of the greatest war heroes this village has ever seen, or let us suffer the political self-destruction that would be caused by the death of our last loyal Uchiha. Their teammate has a strong familial history with the village, and her mother is a member of the civilian council, so she can't die either. You will get them out one way or another, Iida, or I will do it myself over your corpse!"

The man ran, and Ibiki sighed before holding out his hand. He didn't know what had been placed in it, but he heard a sharp crack after several seconds...one of Anko's kunai was buried in the back of the man's skull.

"If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself." He grumbled, readying the teleportation technique. "Aoi, give me coordinates on Genin zero-zero-one through zero-zero-three."

* * *

Deep within the recesses of Kitsune's mind, a caged fox waited for its container to show himself. Blood-colored eyes glared into the darkness, knowing what had been unleashed by Orochimaru's botched sealing technique.

"Why so hateful, dog? You should know that I'm the _true _inheritor of your power."

**"Menma."**

"Yes, that's my name. What's your point?" The black-haired young man laughed; he cut a much more imposing figure than Naruto, with larger muscles and a taller build, but still couldn't hold a candle to the fear inspired by Kitsune.

**"You are the byproduct of Kitsune's sealing, and are not supposed to exist. Leave, now, before I obliterate you."**

"You wish you could, you flea-ridden rug. If anything, you're the one who should worry about destruction. Of course, why not allow me to remove the seal? I could do it, you know..."

**"You're not going to like the results, child. That seal is more ancient and powerful than you realize."**

Menma ignored Kurama's warning, reaching for the seal that held the Kyubi inside of its prison. His body was wracked with pain at a single touch, making him draw back in shock, and a third voice was heard.

"You should have listened, shade of a shade."

"Namika-"

A blinding yellow light filled the chamber, followed by Menma's screams, and the voice of the Yondaime Hokage echoed throughout the dimension of the seal. It was not kind, or authoritative; it was cruel and violent, evil to the very core. "The experiment is not over yet, and has been tampered with for one time too many. Never again!"

* * *

Naruto woke, devoid of any clothing from the waist up, to the feeling of his blood burning. Opening his mouth to scream, he felt superheated air leave his lungs without a sound...and Kurama healed the damage. His entire body ached, as it always did whenever he had to rely on his Biju's chakra for an extended period of time, and he noticed that he wasn't in the open wilderness.

"You're awake." Sasuke said. "...we passed, given the circumstances. They were actually waiting for you to wake up to start the preliminaries for the third round. You've been out for five days."

Sakura's first instinct had been to run and hug him, but she had refrained; she didn't know if he was healthy enough for it, or how he would react if he was.

"Let's go then. I'm not about to disappoint them."

He grabbed his sword, and tore off the sleeves of a black t-shirt that had been left for him before he put it on. It was nothing against the shirt, plain and ordinary as it had been, but simply his habit with shirts. He marched down, his teammates flanking his sides from behind, and took his sword when Kakashi offered it. "Congratulations." The Jonin offered, though he didn't elaborate as to which of them he was talking to; Naruto, for waking up, or his teammates for surviving against Orochimaru?

Once they reached the floor, the proctor at the front of the room spoke up.

"Hello, and good on you for making it this far into the Chunin Exams! I am Gekko Hayate, the proctor for the Third Exam. As you can see, there are sixty-four of you left...quite frankly, that's still far too many. Now, with that having been said, we'll hold a preliminary round of one-on-one matches." He coughed several times in succession. "Until there are sixteen or fewer of you who are left. These fights are only to knockout or surrender, not to the death; if I can see that one fighter is clearly victorious, I reserve the right to call the match. In all likelihood, each of you who wins their first round will have to fight twice, so keep that in mind. It's possible that some of you won't need to fight at all, however, and you should count yourself lucky if that's the case."

"Get to the point!" Came a cry from the back.

"Get up here, Genin." Hayate called, and the younger man moved to the front. "State your name."

"Hozuki Suigetsu, brother-in-law to the Mizukage."

"You're in Fire territory now, Genin, so think again if you thought that would get you anywhere. Your fate will be determined by the board at the top of the screen...it will choose your opponent."

**UCHIHA SASUKE**

Sasuke moved to stand in front of his chosen opponent, a white-haired and purple-eyed boy from Kirigakure. Suigetsu seemed to be sizing him up, and looked confident in himself.

"I'd expect a little more from the last of your kind...or did your brother take all of the clan's potential with him?"

Hayate leaped away, knowing that the shit had hit the fan; if there was one thing that you did _not _do around Sasuke, it was mention Uchiha Itachi. Even if it was in passing, the name was tantamount to suicide...especially if he thought that he would be able to kill you. Madara's Second Coming had been breached, however, and that meant homicide was coming...two-tomoed Sharingan spun in his eye sockets, awakened by Orochimaru's assault, and one of the Uchiha clan's signature gunbai was unsealed from a scroll in his back pocket. It was, in fact, the same war fan used by all of the clan's chieftains, dating even before the time of the Warring Clans Era. Each of the strongest Uchiha of their generation had wielded it, using it to aid their Katon techniques to unparalleled levels.

"There will be no saving you from your fate."

_**Believe it.**_


	11. Third Exam Prelims, Part One

**I'm back again, after a string of Pokemon one-shots...so, what's up?**

**I know what's up, actually. It's time for some (admittedly fast-written) fights; it's almost 4 AM here, and I may need some help in picking up where I left off, but let's get this trainwreck moving!**

* * *

"You may begin."

The two Genin were left alone at the floor of the makeshift arena, but that didn't mean much; they wasted no time in going after one another. Suigetsu slashed with his sword, cutting up and to the left...only to be blocked by the metal edge of the Uchiha gunbai.

"'No saving me from my fate,' huh? Do all of you talk like that? Geez, it sounds like you're some two-bit actor in a cheap action flick."

Sasuke didn't deign to respond with words, creating an opening instead; using the gunbai to knock Suigetsu's sword arm away, he kicked the teen in his gut. A quick series of punches followed, and he heard at least one rib crack before he backed away. Leaping to the other side of the room, he began gathering his chakra. Things were going to get a bit...heated.

Suigetsu charged, predictably enough, and Sasuke exhaled. "Katon: Hosenka!" The Phoenix-flower technique was dangerous enough on its own, and was a favorite among its Uchiha creators for the way it could hide weapons. But when it was boosted with a chakra-powered gunbai sweep, "dangerous" became "lethal." Each of the small fireballs quadrupled in size, creating a wall of fire that honed in on its target...but the youngest Uchiha's opponent was from Kirigakure, the land of the infamous Kaguya revolt and a recently-ended civil war. Anyone who could come out of that alive was sure to know their way around inescapable situations.

Hozuki Suigetsu, brother of the late Hozuki Mangetsu and brother-in-law to the Mizukage herself, a member-in-training for Kirigakure's Seven Ninja Swordsmen; they were impressive credentials, and he had the skill to back them up. A quick Suiton attack punched a hole through the veil of flames, and he threw as many kunai at Sasuke as he could hold...all of them missed, but that had been the point. He just needed for the Sharingan-using teen to stay in one place, so he could take him out with a clean hit.

* * *

_They're pathetic._

**[Not everyone can be as good as you, you know. You can't expect them to be masters of their chakra, or even their emotions.]**

_Sure I can. It just means that my expectations go unfulfilled._

**[You are a sad, strange, little man.]**

_Be that as it may, you're a man who permanently turned himself into a giant nine-tailed fox because of how much you hated your parents. I'm fairly certain that you win the contest of "who's more pathetic."_

Kurama had nothing more to say, mostly because he couldn't argue with his host's point without bringing unnecessary details to light; he could certainly make a case for himself, but just didn't care enough. He was more interested, unlike Naruto, in the fight that was going on at the room's floor.

Naruto was much more focused on the people he saw around him, particularly the contestants who were clearly on a higher tier from one another; they stood apart from their teams, grouping together. There was one each from Suna, Kiri and Kumo...almost as if they were waiting for him to join their trio. Sabaku no Gaara, the demon of the desert sands; Terumi Mangetami, who had fought beside her mother in the final days of Kirigakure's civil war; Yotsuki Yamato, though he sometimes went by Robin, the only child of the Raikage's deceased younger brother; Naruto moved to them, standing beside them, noticing their postures and attentiveness.

Yamato leaned against a stone pillar, a nodaichi on his right hip, his hair going outward in an afro. His eyes flicked to Naruto, as if judging the fairer-skinned boy's prowess on sight alone, and he gave a nod...though whether it was of greeting, or approval, was uncertain.

Mangetami was sitting on the walkway's railing, looking at him for much longer than he'd have liked, emerald eyes seeming to take in every ounce of muscle that he showed. And, for that matter, she might as well have seen the frame that he hid beneath his shirt. He raised an eyebrow at her, questioning, but her only response was to lightly lick her lips; he rolled his eyes before turning his eyes to her left.

Gaara was standing comfortably still, with his eyes fixed on the battle, though it was clear that he wasn't paying much attention to it. His arms were crossed, and his imperious gaze was without pity; he didn't bother to acknowledge his bretheren's arrival, though he sensed it, and continued to observe.

"Uchiha Sasuke...this is all he is capable of?"

"Well, winning means that you might have to fight a second round. He's probably just sticking to Taijutsu and Kenjutsu for now, since that saves chakra."

"He's going to lose. Suigetsu was our top Genin-ranked swordsman, so Kenjutsu is just a waste of time."

Naruto smirked, though he chose not to speak, and continued to watch Sasuke dodge around Suigetsu's sword strikes. While the teen's Sharingan was allowing him to keep up with Suigetsu's movements, he had neither the skill nor the arm strength to outlast him; he would need to think like a real ninja in order to advance. And the first rule of being a ninja was, after all, to look underneath the underneath.

* * *

Katon-natured chakra still littered the room from a minute ago, when Sasuke had created the wall of flames, and he would need to use that to his advantage. Yes, Suigetsu was clearly a Suiton user, but that would only work to Sasuke's benefit if he could manipulate it correctly. The gunbai wouldn't be very important, as wielding it would only slow down his arms...he'd just need to trust his luck and dodge Suigetsu's blade.

The war fan was sealed away, and he kicked his enemy's sword from his hands; things were already going better than he'd have hoped. He let loose another Hosenka at point-blank range, now with kunai in them, and Suigetsu could only stop a few of them with his water techniques...the Kirigakure Genin's legs were given the equivalent of a moderate sunburn, and the air around him started to get warm with steam.

"I could just do this the basic way, but I think I'll finish you off with style."

Sasuke reached out to his chakra in the air, creating a string from what remained in his body, using it to bring the steam together into a solid block. Letting go, he turned his back to Suigetsu; at the cracking sound that signaled the other man's broken skull, and the subsequent call of his victory, he smirked. A shunshin technique sent him back up to the balcony, where he stood with Sakura and looked to Naruto.

The whisker-marked blonde gave a curt nod, motioning for him to look at the screen.

**SABAKU NO GAARA **

**VS**

**HIKARU SHINJI**

Gaara proved an easy victor, though he struggled to remain within the "no killing" rule, and moved on. Naruto slept through most of the matches afterwards, though there was one that shocked even _him_:

**HYUGA HINATA**

**VS**

**HYUGA NEJI**

Of course, everyone thought Hinata would give up. They assumed that, if she didn't, she would get trampled by her elder cousin. He was a genius and a prodigy, forced to work for every ounce of strength he posessed, where she was the soft-hearted heiress who couldn't win against a girl six years her junior. It was almost like they bought into the "fate" and "destiny" drivel that Neji constantly spouted...and, of course, they were all wrong. Even Naruto had assumed Neji's victory was certain; Kurenai, the girl's own sensei, had thought the outcome set in stone!

Hinata had silenced all of their assumptions, however. As Neji had begun his monologue on how it was impossible for her to win, that it was her destiny to fall before the true genius of the Hyuga clan, she had struck.

It hadn't been a Jyuken strike, or even an attack from a much more base Taijutsu style, but a hand sign. Her chakra had activated the seal on Neji's forehead, making him cry out in pained terror; as she continued to focus, his suffering became more and more intense. She had walked towards his fallen form, not letting up on her seal-based assault until she stood over him...letting her hand drop, she had jumped on his chest and broken his ribcage. For good measure, she had even kicked him in the face and broken his nose.

Something had happened to Hinata inside of Hell's Eden, and it had made her into something that she wasn't supposed to become. Whether that change was for better or worse couldn't be foretold, only guessed, but it had broken the sweet woman who had entered the Chunin Exams; she was prepared to be a ninja, all illusions about the "glorious" career now far-gone from her mind, and one thing was determined: the old Hinata wasn't coming back.

**HARUNO SAKURA**

**VS**

**YAMANAKA INO**

This would have been another boring match for Naruto to sleep through, were it not for something he noticed as Ino made her way down: a somewhat-rampant seal, its various lines extending out in a geometric pattern across her shoulder. Even from the distance that separated them, he knew what it meant; it hadn't just been his team that Orochimaru had gone after. The snake would have wanted as many potential vessels as possible, given that they had a death rate of nine in ten...the thought wasn't comfortable, and its implications were frightening, but he couldn't go to the Hokage with his worries.

In any case, the two once-friends stood in front of one another with determination in their eyes. For Ino, it was a chance to one-up her rival and get closer to Sasuke; for Sakura, it was the drive to keep up with her teammates. Sasuke was halfway to passing, and there was no way that Naruto would fail at this stage, so there was no reason for her to get left behind in their shadow!

"You may begin."

The words hung there, for a second, before they both exploded into action; Ino moved forwards, in a classic brawler fashion, intent on giving Sakura the roundhouse of a lifetime. Sakura used a small amount of chakra to leap overhead, where she began throwing her shuriken. A drawn kunai deflected the stars, save for one that sliced deeply into the blonde teen's cheek before coming back to its owner's hand...Sakura landed, and Ino fired off her familial Shintenshin jutsu.

"Behind you!"

"Sakura" exploded in a cloud of smoke, leaving Ino's conscience to wander around before returning to her body, leaving the real pinkette free to pummel her opponent's body. She wasn't incredibly strong, but enough hits to the back of the head is guaranteed to knock someone out; Sakura was declared the winner.

Several more matches passed, until only the last one remained. Though the two contestants knew who the other was, at this point, they still managed to bear with the pleasantries and wait for their names to be shown on the scoreboard. While it certainly wasn't going to be a clash of titans, it was surely going to showcase just how effortlessly one of the fighters could handle his enemies.

For the first time in a long time, he had returned to the world in his full glory; while the Kyubi's chakra was still sealed from him, and it was possible that Kurama's powers would never return, that didn't truly matter. He was here to do battle, to unleash the might of an ancient entity long thought dead to the world.

**UZUMAKI NARUTO**

**VS**

**YAKUSHI KABUTO**

The Dark Lord Kitsune had returned.

_**Believe it.**_


End file.
